Within six months, the Russian army lost Ukraine thousand soldiers. Estimates of the number of dead Russian soldiers in Ukraine vary, but it is important not just the total number of dead soldiers, but who exactly died and who they are, the BBC Russian Service writes in its investigation, citing Western and Russian experts, to note that he managed to document confirm that Russia lost more than 900 people from the elite units, the training of which took years of effort and millions of dollars in costs.

According to both Western and Russian experts, the troops of the Russian army were not ready to conduct offensive operations. As a result, tasks normally assigned to the infantry had to be carried out by special forces units, marines and paratroopers.

These units, traditionally considered the elite units of the Russian army, suffered significant losses during the semi-annual invasion of Ukraine. Dozens of Air Force pilots also died. According to experts, it will be problematic to replace all these fighters of Russia’s elite forces.

In particular, according to an investigation by the BBC Russian Service, the losses of these elite units are as follows: 337 marines, 245 soldiers of the special forces of the Russian Guard, 151 people of the military special services (GRU) were killed. ), 144 people, who made up two elite regiments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, 67 Air Force pilots and 20 people of the Federal Security Service (FSB) and the Federal Security Service (FSO).

The BBC indicates that the figures for these casualties are based on a list of confirmed dead military personnel, which the BBC is compiling in cooperation with the Mediazona website (in Russia it is listed as “MME-foreign agent”) and a group of volunteers, who draw data from open sources.

^{Source: APE-MEB, BBC (Russian Service)}