Vladimir Putin has lost half of Russia's airborne troops since invading Ukraine

01 February 2023 , 18:40

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Russian paratroopers lining up to board a military cargo plane (Image: Russian Defence Ministry/AFP via)

Russian President Vladimir Putin has lost up to half his crack airborne troops in the Ukraine war, an expert in Moscow’s military has admitted.

The elite paratroopers were already hit hard by the time he launched his controversial mobilisation of “cannon-fodder” recruits in September 2022.

It means as many as 20,000 of his elite forces have been killed out of a suspected total toll of 127,500 Russian troops killed since almost a year ago.

Many of Russia’s Spetsnaz special forces are recruited from the airborne forces as is the case with UK Paras, who act as “shock troops” in times of war.

The Russian paratroopers revelation comes from editor and founder of the Rybar military Telegram channel, Mikhail Zvinchuk, a former defence ministry official.

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Pro-Russian separatists patrol with tank in the pro-Russian separatists-controlled Donetsk, Ukraine (Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

It explains why Putin’s paratroopers have been seen as missing in recent months in the war.

“Many are saying that you can’t see the Airborne Troops at the front,” he said.

“Unfortunately, this has come to pass.

“Up to the start of mobilisation [September 2022], the Airborne Troops lost around 40-to-50 percent of their complement.

“That is, not many of the old tried and tested formations are left.”

It was known that the airborne forces had sustained heavy losses, but Zvinchuk’s disclosure quantifies the scale of the carnage.

Among those who died early in the war were Lt-Col Sergei Moskvichev, 45, who was buried with full military honours after his body took three months to retrieve.

Putin's invading forces have suffered heavy losses in the nearly one year of fighting so far (SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Another was Col. Andrei Vasilyev, 49, commander of the 137th Guards Airborne Regiment of the 106th Guards Airborne Division, based in Ryazan.

Also killed was Colonel Maxim Kudrin, in his late 30s, deputy commander of the 106th Tula Airborne Division for Armaments.

Multiple recent graves of airborne troops are seen in cities like Ryazan and Tula, closely associated with these elite forces.

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Previously, the BBC Russian Service reported the loss of more than 900 special forces soldiers, paratroopers, marines and pilots in September.

Zvinchuk did not specify the number of airborne troops he believed to have been killed in the war prior to mobilisation, or make clear exactly who was included in his 40 to 50 per cent figures.

Officially, Russia had some 45,000 airborne troops in 2016.

By 2021, some 27,000 were contract service personnel.

The airborne troops led the initial invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and they had suffered high casualties within weeks of thrusting towards Kyiv.

Chris Hughes