Leaked classified documents also reveal China’s plans to send “lethal aid” to the Russian military disguised as civilian goods.
Russia’s war against Ukraine has taken a heavy toll on special forces after their heavy deployment to the front lines with skilled commandos who have claimed a high number of casualties, leaked US military documents show.
The over-reliance of Russian commanders on the spetsnaz special operations units led to speculation by US officials that it will take Moscow several years to rebuild.
US officials believe commando forces suffered a staggering casualty rate and were left exhausted after Russian commanders deployed them in the early days of the war to seize momentum, according to a Washington Post report. report on the cache of leaked sensitive documents.
The assessment is based on before-and-after satellite images that, according to US officials, reveal that “all but one of the five Russian separate Spetsnaz brigades returning from combat operations in Ukraine in the late summer of 2022 suffered significant casualties.”
While the documents do not specify the number of spetsnaz commandos killed in the war, intelligence intercepts show that Moscow lost almost an entire brigade “with only 125 active personnel out of 900 deployed”.
According to the leaked documents, US officials estimate that it will take Russia up to a decade to rebuild its special forces.
Footage from the early days of the war in Ukraine showed spetsnaz soldiers arriving in Kharkiv, Mariupol and the Donbas after conventional self-propelled rifle units encountered difficulties.
The documents said the heavy casualties among Russian special forces will have lasting consequences, including the ability to train paramilitary groups, “which Russia has used to further its interests abroad”.
China’s ‘deadly aid’
In addition, a US intercept of Russian intelligence included in the leaked documents reveals that China approved the “provision of deadly aid” to Moscow and planned to disguise military equipment as civilian items.
A February 23, 2023 US intelligence summary – based on Russian foreign intelligence wiretaps – stated that China’s central military commission had “approved the incremental delivery of weapons” and wanted it to remain secret.
According to the Washington Post, a document titled The Watch Report has been labeled top secret with very limited distribution and contains information about China labeled “BEIJING”.
The revelations are part of top-secret US military documents that are still emerging and contain sensitive state secrets, including details about Ukraine’s preparation for a spring offensive and suggesting the United States is spying on its allies.
The Pentagon has confirmed that the documents “appear to contain sensitive and highly classified material,” but stated that at least some have been manipulated.