Forced deployment of once-elite VDV to Ukrainian battleground means ‘Russian force is likely to be less flexible in reacting to operational challenges’
What we know on day 465 of the invasion
The forced deployment of once-elite Russian VDV troops to Bakhmut amid the withdrawal of Wagner mercenary forces means “the whole Russian force is likely to be less flexible in reacting to operational challenges”, the UK Ministry of Defence has said.
The ministry’s latest intelligence update said Russian VDV (airborne forces) had assumed an increasingly important role in the devastated eastern Ukrainian city and that elements of its 76th and 106th divisions and two additional separate VDV brigades were now deployed to the area.
The VDV is much degraded from its pre-invasion ‘elite’ status. However, Russian commanders have likely attempted to maintain some of these still relatively capable units as an uncommitted reserve.
Because they have instead been forced to deploy them to hold the front line in Bakhmut, the whole Russian force is likely to be less flexible in reacting to operational challenges.
The mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, has ordered shelters to be operational on a 24-hour basis, after allegations that three people who were killed by falling debris from a Russian missile attack were stuck outside a “locked” air raid shelter. Three people including a child were killed and at least 11 people injured in Thursday’s early morning missile attack. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has accused Klitschko and other city leaders of negligence.
The top US military officer has said training for Ukrainian forces on advanced US Abrams tanks has started, but those weapons crucial over the long term in trying to expel Russia from occupied territory will not be ready in time for Kyiv’s imminent counteroffensive.
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