VIDEOS
1. Russia Shuffles in New Commanders! Politics Gets Weird! 16 Apr 23 Ukraine Daily Update
Combat Veteran Reacts
253K subscribers
4-16-2023 5:00 p.m. DST
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Svz1BDvQsoo
2. Repression madness: in Russia more cases on ‘high treason’ are prosecuted
UATV English
385K subscribers
Apr 16, 2023 6:00 P.M. dst
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eH5Ah7YWgOs
Since 2015 no cases in ‘high treason’ accusations have been closed. All the suspects have been declared guilty, no matter the facts. This tendency aggravates modern-day Russia. People see spies and ‘enemies of the state’ in their own neighbours and write suspicion notes to the special services. Learn more on human rights violations in Russia from our correspondents.
ARTICLE
Russia has lost most of its special forces units in Ukraine, - Washington Post
News Censor.NET War in Ukraine
14.04.23 17:41
https://censor.net/en/news/3412192/russia_has_lost_most_of_its_special_forces_units_in_ukraine_washington_post
The Washington Post, after studying “leaked” secret Pentagon documents, believes that Russian special forces are exhausted by the war in Ukraine, and it will take Moscow years to rebuild them.
This is reported by Censor.NET with reference to the ВВС.
The Russian special forces, designed for covert operations in the rear, were used as infantry, and as a result they suffered a huge number of casualties in killed and wounded, the publication notes. American analysts explain such estimates by the fact that, in their opinion, Russian commanders rely too much on specialized units.
Special forces usually receive secret and risky tasks - as an example, the American publication cites the order to capture the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky. But after the start of the war last February, Russian commanders “sought to seize the moment” and ordered elite special forces to engage in direct combat, the Washington Post notes.
Observers say the rapid attrition of Russian special forces units changed the dynamics of the war from the outset, severely limiting Moscow’s ability to use covert tactics to support conventional combat operations. American officials in their assessments believe that the huge losses suffered by these units will make them less effective not only in Ukraine, but also in other parts of the world where Russian military forces operate.
As evidence, the documents leaked to the Internet include satellite images. Thus, according to a picture of a military base used by the 22nd separate special forces brigade in southern Russia, American officials concluded that four of the five special forces brigades that returned from Ukraine in the summer of 2022 suffered significant losses. According to experts, the 22nd and two other special forces brigades suffered losses at the level of 90-95%, WP notes.
Russia’s problems are complicated by the loss of experience among its elite forces. Special forces soldiers require at least four years of specialized training, the US documents said, which concluded that it could take as long as a decade for Moscow to rebuild the units.
The documents do not say how many Russian commandos were killed or wounded. However, with reference to intercepted intelligence, it is said that only one unit - the 346th - “lost almost the entire brigade, in which only 125 of the 900 servicemen remained in the ranks.”
The US government’s estimates are consistent with analysts’ observations. Rob Lee, a military expert on Russia and a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, says that as Russia’s motorized rifle infantry has proven ineffective, commanders have tried to compensate by putting elite airborne units, marines and special forces on the front lines — specifically during the unsuccessful attempt to capture Kyiv and in the campaigns in the east and south.
The strategy had immediate consequences, Lee says. Russian commanders, having lost their best-trained fighters, also lost valuable skills that those troops possessed, including intelligence gathering, from the start of the invasion until last fall.
Russia’s spending on its elite troops will have cascading effects, the documents say, including the loss of the ability to train paramilitary groups in unconventional warfare tactics “that Russia has used to advance its interests abroad.” Source: https://censor.net/en/n3412192