Putin's Elite Air Assault Troops Are Bleeding Out Near Pokrovsk

The 'Guards' designation used to mean that a Soviet or Russian unit was elite, notable for its performance in battle. But as more units are chewed up in fruitless, destructive assaults across drone-dominated gray zones against entrenched Ukrainian defenders, that honor has lost its cache as trained volunteer specialists were killed or wounded and replaced by new recruits who were simply given the same patch. 

The latest unit to suffer is one of Russia's airborne divisions, the 76th, which is being withdrawn from the front around Pokrovsk for 'refitting,' a euphemism for having become 'combat-ineffective,' meaning they have suffered so many losses that they are no longer capable of operating as a functional organization. JL

Owen Warner reports in Medium:

Reports from the Pokrovsk front say Russia's 76th Guards Air Assault Division are pulling back from forward positions, shredded by months of futile, grinding assaults. The 76th and supporting units have suffered so much they are burning through their combat power at an unsustainable rate. Russian officers are rewarded for aggression, not for preserving lives. Commanders were inflating success rates and pushing soldiers forward just for the “propaganda channels” of Moscow. The reality on the ground, thousands of dead soldiers for a few meters. As its manpower shrank, the 76th's forward squads were rotated and raw replacements were brought in. But hastily mobilized soldiers wearing the same patches can't replace trained specialists and have the same combat power. Replacement of these battered troops from the front line is an admission of failure.

The men of Russia’s 76th Guards Air Assault Division (VDV) were once the pride of Pskov, decorated, disciplined, and among the few units Moscow could still call elite. Now, say the reports from the Pokrovsk front, the remnants of the division are pulling back from their forward positions, shredded by months of futile, grinding assaults.

It is the same grim cycle that has defined Russia’s war in Ukraine. A unit is praised, thrown into a “decisive” offensive, and ground down until only the name survives.

The latest reports states that elements of the 76th VDV and the supporting Combined Arms Armies have suffered so much that they are burning through their combat power at an unsustainable rate. Even in Russia’s system of denial, the replacement of these battered troops from the assault line is an admission of failure.

Pokrovsk: The New Meat Grinder

The sector of Pokrovsk in Ukraine’s Donetsk region is a hotly disputed region that has become one of Russia’s main operational objectives. The Kremlin has advanced into the outer belt of the region and has deployed elite and reserve forces to press the assault, the map has yet to shift significantly.

According to Ukrainian reports, Russian operations in this sector follow a grimly familiar rhythm, albeit with a modern, agonizingly slow twist. Conscripts who are not trained and mobilized units are sent forward in small infantry groups to divert Ukrainian artillery and first-person view (FPV) drones. Next come the better-trained assault troops, such as the VDV or the 90th Guards Tank Division, trying to take advantage of any gaps. A cold equation: soldiers as bait, lives as ammunition.

This has had devastating consequences. The 76th VDV which, together with two whole Combined Arms Armies, was ground into the meat grinder simply could no longer sustain the pace of the offensive. Its manpower shrank, its forward assault squads were rotated and raw replacements were brought in. Now Pokrovsk is showing that even Russia’s “elite” forces are unable to withstand a system in which they are disposable.

Cannon Fodder

Russian officers are rewarded for aggression, not for preserving forces. From the front, reports indicate that commanders were deliberately inflating their success rates and pushing soldiers forward just for the “propaganda channels” of Moscow. The reality on the ground, thousands of dead soldiers for a few metres, never goes up.

What Ukraine calls “meat assaults” are, in Russia’s military vocabulary, “storm operations.” With Ukraine being a drone-dominated battlefield, today these are based on small units of infantry and hundreds of drone sorties that strike along the same routes, while artillery barrages provide covering fire. It is a brutally simple strategy, one that has placed enormous pressure on the Ukrainian defenders and today has reduced Russia’s average rate of advance in the area to only 70 meters a day.

The 76th VDV was to lead the way in the decisive breakthrough, the one that would give them a decisive victory, the one that would finally break through the Ukrainian lines. Rather, it was shattered.

Loyalty Over Logic

It is the fate of these elite paratroopers that reveals the hidden dysfunction within Russia’s military culture. Commanders are not keen on informing higher command that the attacks are not gaining momentum. Analysts have called this the “Potemkin war” because many reported victories exist only on paper. The numbers that Putin’s intelligence services are presenting to him are numbers that appear clean on the surface, but contain the blood price behind them.

In this context, soldiers are just numbers, not people. On the battlefield, loyalty to command is more important than logic. If a brigade or division can lose half its strength and still take a block, it can be considered successful. Blind obedience has replaced competence, and it is destroying the units that were originally given to lead.

The Elite, Thrown Away

The ‘elite’ tag on these air assault divisions seems rather ironic these days. They have been destroyed and remade many times throughout the campaign, and so the word no longer has any meaning at all in the context of training or professionalism. It means endurance. That has become the fate of these paratroopers. However, the cycle is unsustainable.

They say that it takes hundreds of trained specialists, months of preparation and expensive equipment to rebuild a top-notch combat unit. Replacing them with hastily called up soldiers wearing the same patches isn’t the same as having them. You can’t replace them with hastily mobilised soldiers wearing the same patches and have the same combat power.

Pokrovsk uncovers the fall of that illusion. The manpower stockpiles are limited in Russia. It has a rigid operational doctrine. Its strategies rely on a degree of human sacrifice that any contemporary army can’t afford to endure for long.

Instead of an operational breakthrough, the Russian command is now desperately attempting to consolidate the ground gained, with the hope of securing defensible logistical positions, while they are subject to an unrelenting deep-strike campaign by the Ukrainians.

Understanding “Combat Ineffective”

The military definition of a combat-ineffective unit is the failure of the unit to be able to launch an attack or the loss of group cohesion. Morale: something worse, the men have lost trust. A soldier can endure wounds and fatigue, but cannot fight for a command that treats him like a weapon.

Those who survived the parachute jumps withdraw from their positions around Pokrovsk with more than just their bodies in tatters.

The Cost of a War That Eats Its Own

This story is about more than a battlefield. It is about a nation running on denial. Russia’s military high command still measures success by meters of captured ground, not lives. Even the most faithful divisions are limited resources, however.

The lesson Pokrovsk teaches is that blind obedience may lead only to death. Maybe the line on a map will shift temporarily, but “cannon fodder” is a tactic that is undermining the very thing that could win the war.

The truth is, the tragedy of these elite units is not that they failed to swiftly capture the entire Pokrovsk region. It is only that they revealed that Russia’s war has become unsustainable.