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

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

Shankar Narayan
4 min readJun 28, 2024

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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.

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Shankar Narayan

He didn't care what he had or what he had left, he cared only about what he must do.