After numerous attempts, the Russian army has finally decimated their 83rd Airborne Brigade.

The 83rd won’t be making a comeback anytime soon.

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The Russian high command has a plan. It works intermittently. In this plan, a large portion of the army will be filled with barely trained and barely equipped soldiers. These troops will be sent to the frontline, and their exit routes will be controlled by special disciplinary units such as the Chechen groups.

The job of these disciplinary units is not to fight the enemy but to finish off their own comrades if they withdraw from fighting. The entire Russian armed forces at the front know who is behind them, so most of the time, they don’t even try to retreat. This is the primary setup of the Russian army. Between these units, at points the Russian high command deems critical, they position their elite troops. They don’t have many, but whatever they have, they spread them around.

You can pick up the map of the war zone and check the heatmaps. Wherever the Russians are fighting with a lot of intensity, you will find these well-equipped VDV troops.

Ukrainian military observer Kostyantyn Mashovets provided additional detail on June 25 regarding the Russian Airborne (VDV) forces’ use of assault companies, which he initially introduced on June 20 by discussing a VDV training manual he reportedly has analyzed.

Mashovets stated that a “classic” VDV assault company usually consists of five assault platoons. Mashovets noted that a classic VDV assault company consists of one assault platoon, one fire support platoon, a reconnaissance platoon, and a drone platoon that utilizes quadcopters and first-person view (FPV) drones.

Mashovets stated that each platoon consists of roughly 19 personnel, except for the fire support platoon that is staffed with roughly 29 personnel. Mashovets stated that Russian VDV forces often attack in groups of one or two platoons, but rarely use all five due to difficult combat conditions and high personnel turnover rates due to Russian losses.

These VDV elements are among the few that have a drone platoon. They are well-equipped.

The 83rd Airborne is one such elite VDV unit in the Russian army. They had been fighting in and around Bakhmut for a long time. After things went disastrously wrong for the Russian…