Published: 18:46, 15 Apr 2023
PUTIN'S elite special forces have suffered a staggering 95 per cent casualty rate during the war in Ukraine, leaked Pentagon documents have revealed.
The formidable Spetsnaz forces have been "extremely depleted" on the battlefield, with several units only narrowly avoiding being wiped out in the first weeks of the invasion.
The troops - who endure around four years of tough training - reportedly suffered "significant losses" after being roped in to back up infantry soldiers.
It marks a huge blow for Moscow, as US officials say it could take up to a decade to replenish the depleted special forces squad.
The bombshell findings, reported by the Washington Post, suggest Putin's plot to blitz Ukraine in days drastically backfired.
The 100 pages of stunning information include dangerous revelations of Ukraine's planned offensive and reports that the US has been spying on key allies.
The documents also provided a damning assessment of the ailing Spetsnaz units, which are typically reserved to carry out clandestine operations.
The no-nonsense soldiers are known for their ruthlessness, but have dramatically been taken down a peg by the embarrassing leak.
Top-secret US intelligence dated from late last year suggests the elite troops were ordered to prop up other Russian forces on the frontline by top brass.
It seems bungling commanders didn't trust the conventional fighters to get the job done, so impulsively sent their best assets in instead.
But the move reportedly proved a spectacular failure, resulting in catastrophic losses of Spetsnaz forces.
The bold claims are backed up by a series of before-and-after satellite images showing a base used by the 22nd Separate Spetsnaz Brigade.
Their emergence online prompted a national security investigation that culminated in the arrest of national guardsman Jack Teixeira, 21.
A photo taken in November 2021, four months before the start of the war, shows the headquarters in southern Russia packed out with tactical vehicles.
Another snap taken a year later, months after Spetsnaz's first deployment to Ukraine, shows a substantial lack of military motors.
US intel said this reveals that "all but one of five Russian Separate Spetsnaz Brigades that returned from combat operations in Ukraine in late summer 2022 suffered significant losses."
The Special Forces unit was reported to have sustained an estimated 90 to 95 per cent attrition rate in the following months.
The leaked documents claim the 346th Spetsnaz unit "lost nearly the entire brigade with only 125 personnel active out of 900 deployed."
The 25th Spetsnaz Regiment is alleged to not have ever made it back from Ukraine, possibly due to significant losses of men and equipment.
The crushing defeats of Russia's rigorously trained commandos reportedly hampered Putin's ability to complete clandestine operations in Ukraine.
US experts believe the notorious Spetsnaz units will now be regarded as far less intimidating as their best men were expended so early on.
Three of the elite fighters - including one dubbed "Agent Stalin" after the vicious Soviet leader were slaughtered in the battled for the besieged city of Mariupol in March last year.
Captain Konstantin Druzhkov, 33, Islam Abduragimov, 19 and Shamil Aselderov were reportedly "liquidated" by the Azov regiment of the National Guard of Ukraine.
SECOND-RATE FORCES
Their belongings were found discarded in one of Spetsnaz's trademark Tigr armoured vehicles that had been captured.
The death toll then rose again when Major Dmitry Toptun, who led a motorised battalion, was reported to have been blown up.
The top commander's armoured vehicle is said to have been hit by an anti-tank missile while fighting in Izyum, near Kharkiv.
Paratrooper commander Major Alexey Osokin was also killed during battle, following the deaths of 17 of Putin's senior commanders.
Rob Lee, a Russia military expert and senior fellow with the Foreign Policy Research Institute, told The Post that Russia dropped the ball by rushing into relying on special forces so quickly.
He believes the rapid depletion of troops and artillery changed the course of the war and effectively botched the entire invasion.
Special forces soldiers were supposedly tasked with capturing Ukraine's capital Kyiv and kidnapping President Volodymyr Zelensky.
They were also said to have been deployed in Kharkiv in the east, where many of them were killed or taken prisoner.
Russia has routinely diminished the scale of its losses since the war began, despite reports suggesting soaring figures.
In wake of the leak, the Pentagon has "begun to limit who across the government receives its highly classified daily intelligence briefs," CNN reported on Thursday.
The alleged source, Teixera, reportedly went by the nickname 'OG' and regularly posted documents on social media sites.
The suspect, who has held top security clearance since 2021, faces up to 15 years in prison if found guilty of the leak.
An alleged plot by high-ranking Kremlin officials to sabotage Putin was also revealed within the classified docs.
The reported plan - which the Kremlin has denied - is hinged on Putin being incapacitated while receiving chemotherapy treatment.
According to the documents, the information about the plot to sabotage Putin allegedly came from an unidentified Russian source with access to the Kremlin's inner circles.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/22051804/putins-elite-special-forces-wiped-out-ukraine-leaked-docs/
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