Russia's New Division Unleashed on Kherson Won't Meet 'Elite Standards'—UK

A new Russian airborne division debuting in southern Ukraine is likely "poorly trained" and will fall short of "elite standards" expected of the specialized soldiers, according to a new assessment.

Russia's airborne forces, also known as the VDV, has likely sent its new 104th Guards Airborne Division into battle in Ukraine's southern Kherson region, the U.K.'s Ministry of Defence said on Thursday.

The 104th was reduced to a brigade in the late 1990s, but Moscow said in August that it was rebuilding the division. In late September, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said the re-activation of the 104th was almost complete.

"The division will likely be poorly trained and is unlikely to meet the erstwhile elite standards of the VDV," the U.K. government said in its daily intelligence update.

The Russian Defense Ministry has been approached for comment via email.

Russian paratroopers—and other elite brigades—are thought to have sustained heavy losses in the 21-month-old war, particularly during the early months of the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine. This has meant elite units lost much of their "former strength," backfilled with mobilized, poorly trained and often "reluctant" personnel, experts previously told Newsweek.

In late January, a former Kremlin press officer said that Russian airborne troop units had lost half of their personnel between February and September 2022.

By the time spring rolled around in Ukraine in April this year, VDV units were fortifying Russian positions in areas such as the devastated city of Bakhmut, which Russia captured the following month. They were reportedly drafted into the hotspots of fighting along the front lines, and were deployed to prop up "over-stretched" units in the face of Ukraine's summer counteroffensive.

Russian VDV commander, General Colonel Mikhail Teplinsky, likely hoped to push the airborne forces' "traditional role as an elite force," the U.K. government said back in April, although the U.S. Institute for the Study of War think tank suggested at the time that this would be difficult because of heavy troop losses.

Teplinsky will likely maintain a close watch on the 104th Guards Airborne Division in Kherson, the U.K. Defense Ministry added on Thursday.

Teplinsky recently replaced the former head of Russia's operations around the Dnieper River running through Kherson, Colonel General Oleg Makarevich.

Ukraine has been pressing on with ground operations on the Russian-controlled east bank of the Dnieper since October 2023. The river has broadly marked the front lines in Kherson since Kyiv made sweeping gains in its first counteroffensive in late 2022. Russian forces then retreated to the east, or left bank of the Dnieper.

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