Russia is likely running a “deliberate information operation” in a bid to rescue the reputation of its senior military leaders, according to the UK.
The UK’s Ministry of Defence has suggested that its Russian counterpart is trying to revive the image of one particular battalion – the 155th Naval Infantry Brigade – through a media campaign.
In its latest daily update, the MoD claimed this brigade “has become synonymous with recent Russian failures in Ukraine”.
Back in March, Ukraine made international headlines after it claimed that the very same brigade was refusing to carry out orders to capture Vuhledar, the site of an ongoing battle in the east of Ukraine.
So throughout March, Moscow seemed to focus in on this battalion.
The MoD claim Russia released “some of the most extensive Russian helmet-cam combat footage yet” in March from the brigade’s soldiers, and there was a televised visit by a prominent Russian TV host Vladimir Sovyov.
The UK officials also noted that there were “public announcements that the formation is in ‘high spirits [with] a strong determination to achieve the set goals’” and there have been plenty of “images showing the 155th being re-quipped with modified tanks”.
However, UK officials speculated that the regiment has in reality been “reduced to combat ineffective status at least twice in the last six months”.
That’s because they were “committed to tactically flawed frontal assaults near Vuhledar in Donetsk Oblast”.
As the Ukrainian military told the Kyiv Post last month: “The leaders of the brigade and senior officers are refusing to proceed with a new senseless attack as demanded by their unskilled commanders – to storm well-defended Ukrainian positions with little protection or preparation.”
The Russian military allegedly lost 130 tanks in Vuhledar, which was one of the reasons soldiers supposedly wanted to stop fighting.
Ukrainian drone footage showed that the failed battle had left Russian tanks all over the battlefield.
Russia is said to still be relying on its tanks left over from the Cold War era, while Ukraine is set to receive its American Abrams and German Leopard 2 tanks from its Western allies in the coming months.
And many of the Russian units reportedly struggled in Vuhledar due to a lack of training, particularly the new conscripts.
The MoD added that this attempt to fix the 155th Brigade’s image might reflect “concern about the way in which its failures were being increasingly associated with Russian senior military leaders”.
A think tank, the Institute for the Study of War, has also claimed that this brigade, once an elite part of the Russian army, had been reconstituted as much as seven times since the start of the invasion.