Elite Russian ‘best of the best’ regiment sees 39 members slaughtered in Ukraine

The 331st Guards Parachute Regiment, which was deployed to move from Belarus towards capital of Ukraine Kyiv, has reportedly suffered heavy losses during the invasion

A regiment of elite Russian fighters have suffered heavy losses at the hands of the fierce Ukrainian resistance, it has been reported.

The 331st Guards Parachute Regiment are considered among the most fearsome and well-trained in the Russian army, having fought for the city of Ilovaisk in the Donbas in 2014.

Their involvement in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine this year, and fatalities they’ve suffered, is indicative of how the invasion hasn’t gone as planned.

The regiment’s commanding officer, Col Sergei Sukharev, was killed in Ukraine on 13 March – a major blow for any military unit.

His deputy Major Sergei Krylov was killed alongside him.

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According to the BBC, in the month since the invasion began, at least 37 other members of the 331st have lost their lives in Ukraine.

The men had been part of a column that advanced into Ukraine from Belarus, led by Russia’s airborne forces, that was tasked with capturing Kyiv.

Like many other regiments they soon found themselves bogged down by intense resistance fighting and logistical difficulties.

Videos circulating online show vehicles marked with VDV – the symbol for Russia’s airborne forces – wrecked and abandoned in villages near the capital.

While the Kremlin has not been forthcoming when it comes to announcing the deaths of its men in Ukraine, Russians have been posting tributes to fallen soldiers on social media site V’Kontakte.

One has been set up Sergeant Sergei Duganov, a member of the 331st.

“Nobody knows anything,” one woman wrote on it, the BBC reported.

“The 331st regiment is disappearing. Almost every day, photos of our Kostroma boys get published. It sends shivers down my spine. What’s happening? When will this end? When will people stop dying?”

The deaths of so many members of the 331st will come as a blow to the Russian military, in part symbolically due to their reputation.

In a video posted online last May, a general tells soldiers of the 331st Parachute Regiment that they are “the best of the best”.

As well as serving in the Balkans, Chechnya and Donbas, they regularly took part in Red Square parades in Moscow.

However many of their number have died, its clear that the 331st did not achieve their central mission of circling and then taking Kyiv.

Earlier this week the Kremlin announced plans to focus the invasion effort on the east of the country in what has widely been interpreted as an acceptance that the army was stretched too thin.

This morning Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned that retreating Russian forces are creating “a complete disaster” by leaving mines in homes as they retreat to the east.

“They are mining the whole territory,” the Ukrainian president said.

“They are mining homes, mining equipment, even the bodies of people who were killed. There are a lot of trip wires, a lot of other dangers.”

Zelensky went on to urge Russian families not to let their young men sign up for the army as the Kremlin’s annual military conscription drive began.

“We don’t need more dead people here. Save your children so they do not become villains,” he said.

“Don’t send them to the army. Do whatever you can to keep them alive. Keep them at home.”

According to the BBC the following members of the 331st have died: Klim Abramov, Cpl Artem Arbuzov, Oleg Bedoshvili, Capt (Co Cdr) Yurii Borisov, Snr Lt Ilya Chernyshev, Cpl Yuri Degtaryov, Konstantin Dobrynin, Sasha Dolkin, Sgt Sergei Duganov, Kiril Fedoseyev, Andrey Kovalevsky, Maj Sergei Krylov, Stanislav Kutelev, Cpl Yanosh Leonov, Sgt Alexander Limonov, Snr WO Sergei Lobachyo, Cpl Ivan Mamzurin, Cpl Ilya Martynenko, Lt Lev Ovchinnikov, Maksim Ovchinnikov, Cpl Leonid Panteleyev, Maj Oleg Patskalyev, Sgt Stanislav Petrutik, Sgt Roman Pomelov, Snr WO Pavel Rudenko, Snr Lt Alexander Shalygin, Sgt Nikolai Smirnov, Col Sergei Sukharev, Maxim Svetlenko, Snr Lt Nikolai Symov, Daniil Titov, Maxim Trokai, Ivan Turyev, Sgt Maxim Vorotyntsev, Capt Alexei Vyshegorodtsev, Alexei Yelimov, Cpl Artem Yergin, Sgt Ravshan Zhakbaev, Cpl Danila Zudkov.