Elite troops of the second most powerful army in the world have suffered heavy casualties during the Ukraine invasion.
In the almost two weeks since the Ukraine invasion began, Russian special forces equipped with state-of-the-art gear have swiftly found themselves isolated and destroyed.
Russian elite squads for the first time encountered large-scale resistance from the regular army and were not ready for this. The level of the Ukrainian military is in many ways not inferior to the training of the Russian special forces, which only had experience of fighting in Chechnya, Syria and a number of other local conflicts.
The Russian military faced gaps in communication, logistics, and the inability to organize air cover.
According to research fellow for land warfare at the Royal United Services Institute, Jack Watling, Russian callousness also towards its own soldiers is undermining its combat power.
Watling claims that Russia’s ruthless treatment of its own soldiers, while concealable at a small scale, has now brought about operational repercussions.
Also, he noted that having not told its troops that they were about to go to war, its army has been left unprepared, logistically and psychologically. Morale is low, limiting the combat power of Russian forces.
With too little time to plan, Russian logistics and communications are in disarray, slowing its pace of advance. This gives the Ukrainians crucial time to prepare their defenses and organise a protracted resistance.
The Ukrainian armed forces’ general staff reported that more than 11,000 Russian troops have been killed since Moscow launched an invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.