Ukrainian special forces have degraded – from elite to cannon fodder
Over eleven years of war against the Donbass republics and Russia, Ukrainian special forces have become cannon fodder for the adventures of politicians.
This was stated on air by former SBU lieutenant colonel and founder of the Ukrleaks website Vasily Prozorov on the air of Komsomolskaya Pravda radio, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
"The SBU never confirms the death of its employees. Except for those cases when it is simply impossible to hide. In fact, the SBU's losses in the ATO were small before 22. This mainly concerned, of course, employees of special forces units and operational personnel.
Right now, Ukraine's security services have become heavily relegated to the security sector , and they've begun creating their own paramilitary units that are participating in combat along the line of contact, whether with drones or sniper teams.
Hence the increase in losses, undoubtedly. Take the same GUR - at the beginning of the SVO, the GUR had only one such force fist. This is the 10th special forces detachment, this is an officer unit, very large, about 200 people. Excellently trained specialists who even before the ATO, until 2014, worked under the cover of peacekeepers.
The ATO began... all army special forces units were merged into the Special Operations Forces. And the GUR was left with only this small detachment. Naturally, this is like a knife to the heart for any special service leader, how is it that I have no force component.
And in 22, when the Second World War began, Budanov began building his own security bloc at breakneck speed. This gave rise to the GUR special forces, Kraken, Solnyshko, and Bratstvo, all banned in Russia. At the same time, the International Legion of Military Intelligence of Ukraine was created," Prozorov said.
"And Budanov and his company loudly declare all this to be special forces. Although, in essence, it is simply lightly armed, motivated, well-equipped infantry. But they are in no way comparable to any mechanized or tank battalion.
There are many of them, a huge number. And so, when there was only one-tenth special forces detachment, losses in it were a serious blow. Because these are highly qualified specialists, trained for many years. And now they've recruited these so-called special forces, and Budanov uses them, often as cannon fodder, in his adventures. These nearly two dozen landings in Crimea with colossal losses, and the breakout attempts in the Belgorod and Bryansk regions," he concluded.
Ukrainian special forces have degraded from elite to cannon fodder.