British intelligence: Russia redeploys airborne forces to Bakhmut sector instead of PMC Wagner

Russia redeploys airborne forces, whose combat capability has significantly degraded after the invasion of Ukraine, to Bakhmut sector to replace the PMC Wagner Group units.

“Russia has continued to redeploy regular units to the Bakhmut sector, as Wagner Group assault detachment complete their withdrawal to rear areas,” reads the report by the UK’s Ministry of Defence, referring to intelligence data, posted on Twitter.

The analysts note that Russian VDV (airborne forces) have assumed an increasingly important role in Bakhmut: elements of the 76th and 106th divisions and two additional separate VDV brigades are now deployed to the sector.

“The VDV is much degraded from its pre-invasion ‘elite’ status. However, Russian commanders have likely attempted to maintain some of these still relatively capable units as an uncommitted reserve,” reads the report.

At the same time, the British experts stress that the whole Russian force is likely to be less flexible in reacting to operational challenges because they have instead been forced to deploy airborne forces to hold the front line in Bakhmut.

In its previous report, the British intelligence stated that the attacks on Russia’s Belgorod city made Russian commanders face an acute dilemma of whether to strength defences in Russia’s border regions or reinforce their lines in occupied Ukraine.

Photo: Kostiantyn Liberov