Deployment of airborne troops
ISW: Russia lacks elite infantry
8/29/2023 8:02 am
In order to stop the Ukrainian counter-offensive, Russia ordered its airborne troops to the hot spots of the front. The elite units play an important role in Moscow’s military planning. The ISW assumes that the associations are weakened by the relocation of the front and many operations.
Russia lacks experienced “elite infantry units” that Moscow could once rely on to mount large-scale offensives in Ukraine, according to the US think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW). Accordingly, the Russian military has deployed almost all available airborne troops to regions where Ukraine is conducting its counteroffensive.
On August 27, elements of the 76th Guards Air Assault Division were ordered from the Kreminna area to the Rabotyne area in the Luhansk region, where heavy fighting is currently taking place. These troop transfers could be a sign that the Russian military is lacking in reserves, the ISW said.
The Russian military leadership has always relied on the airborne troops for offensive and defensive operations, but these are probably weakened by the high rate of deployment. “The weakening of these forces will likely reduce Russia’s ability to sustain complex defensive operations and will almost certainly nullify any Russian intent to resume offensive operations on a large scale,” reads the current ISW report.
“The airborne units of the Russian army are traditionally always equipped with the most modern equipment and also have particularly well-trained soldiers,” said Colonel Markus Reisner of the Austrian Armed Forces in an interview with ntv.de on Monday. “One mustn’t forget, however, that these units in particular suffered enormous wear and tear at the beginning of the war.”
Although the 76th Guards Air Assault Division had been refreshed in recent months, it no longer had the good personnel it had at the beginning. “But the Russians are trying to counter a possible breakthrough by the Ukrainians with these units,” said Reisner.