Not by top managers alone: more than 900 elite military lost the Russian Federation in the war against Ukraine

The loss of Spetsnaz officers has the most significant impact on the work of the Russian army. BBC News writes about this, citing Michael Kofman, an Center for Naval Analysis expert.

According to Western and Russian experts, the combined arms units of the Russian army were not ready for assault operations. As a result, the tasks usually assigned to the infantry had to be solved by special forces, marines, and paratroopers. It was these formations, which are traditionally considered the elite of the Russian army, that suffered significant losses. Dozens of military pilots also died. According to experts, it will be problematic to compensate for the loss of all these specialists in Russia, BBC journalists write.

BBC journalists claim that the loss of special forces officers has the most significant impact on the work of the Russian army since it takes at least four years to train a lieutenant with the appropriate qualification. It takes four more years for a lieutenant to gain experience and work his way up to captain. Thus, it takes at least eight years to train one officer.

In addition, the BBC learned of the death:

• 45 employees of the National Guard (special forces - special forces, SOBR, and OMON. Almost every fourth had an officer rank);
• about 20 security officials from the FSB and FSO, including officers from the most secret units;
• more than 80 dead airborne officers;
• 67 military pilots (training one sniper pilot can take 15-17 years and cost $12-14 million);
• at most minuscule 56 Marines, including two brigade commanders;

Since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia has already lost more than 48,000 troops.