UK Intelligence: Russia loses at least 50% of its paratroopers in Ukraine

Russia lost at least half of its airborne troops during the aggressive war against Ukraine, which corresponds to a figure of 15,000.

This was reported in the intelligence update of the UK Ministry of Defence on 6 August, writes Ukrainska Pravda.

UK Defence Intelligence says the annual celebration of the Day of the Airborne Forces of the Russian Federation on 2 August 2023 was "overshadowed by an apparently unsanctioned disclosure of the scope of the casualties the elite force has suffered in Ukraine."

This happened in the appeal of the Commander-in-Chief of the airborne forces, Colonel General Mikhail Teplinsky, where he said that 8,500 paratroopers were injured and still returned to duty or did not leave the front.

"The video was quickly deleted from the Russian Ministry of Defence channels. He did not comment on how many troops were killed or were too seriously wounded to return to duty", the intelligence report stated.

However, the department notes, "extrapolating Teplinsky’s figures endorses the assessment that at least 50 per cent of the 30,000 paratroopers who deployed to Ukraine in 2022 have been killed or wounded."

In its previous report, UK Defence Intelligence noted that the Olenegorskiy Gornyak ship, which was attacked the day before in the port of Novorossiysk, has become the largest seriously damaged Russian warship after the sinking of the Moskva cruiser.

Before that, the department reported Russia is attacking Ukrainian infrastructure in the country’s south with Iranian-made drones, as it believes that such strikes will not lead to a significant escalation.