The story of an elite Russian unit's war in Ukraine – BBC Newsnight

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Russia’s 331st Guards Parachute Regiment is considered “the best of the best”, but BBC Newsnight has been tracing the casualties as the unit battles through Ukraine.

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The regiment’s commanding officer – Col Sergei Sukharev – died in mid-March. His chief of staff and numerous other officers have also fallen.

The regiment previously served in the Balkans, Chechnya and the 2014 Russia invasion in the Donbas.

Tracking the unit through Ukraine, Newsnight’s diplomatic and defence editor Mark Urban looks at the outpouring of grief and anger from Russia in response to the devastating losses. What went wrong for the once-elite regiment? And what does its fate tell us about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine?

This film was produced by Maria Jevstafjeva and Louis Harris-White.

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Newsnight is the BBC’s flagship news and current affairs TV programme – with analysis, debate, exclusives, and robust interviews.

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29 thoughts on “The story of an elite Russian unit's war in Ukraine – BBC Newsnight”

  2. Russians thought, and some morons still think, that Russian speaking people in Ukraine want to belong to Russia. So they thought the local people will help them in this Fascist attack to Kiev and all will be over in three days, like the prisoners tell in interview.

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  5. Russia are bullies who just want to invade other countries throughout history. Even thier tv presenters are he'll bent on war. But when they fight they are made to look useless LOL. Ukraines quality is clearly visible. If Ukraine matched russia for weapons numbers and troop numbers this would have been over. Ukraine doing a massive job against x3 size army. 🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇬🇧

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  7. At the end of any war the truth always wins. We saw it in WW2 for
    example. Mr. Paul Josep Goebbels also tried hard to win the narrative
    but lost. Now, 70 years later, another "Paul Josep" (no, I am not making
    this up guys, the 2 Propagandaministers share the Same name, go figure)
    also tries to change the narrative to benefit Na-zism. Mr. Paul Josep
    Borrel also could not win the hearts and minds, the EU is losing the narrative, despite of investing
    billions of EU's tax payers euros in that matter.

    Reply

  27. the BBC dont mention dont ever metion the Ukraine AZOV 2014, the regiment gained notoriety after allegations emerged of torture and war crimes as well as neo-Nazi sympathies and usage of associated symbols by the regiment itself, as seen in their logo featuring the Wolfsangel, one of the original symbols used by the 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich. Representatives of the Azov Battalion say that the symbol is an abbreviation for the slogan Ідея Нації (Ukrainian for "National Idea") and deny connection with Nazism.[10] In 2014, a spokesman for the regiment said around 10–20% of the unit were neo-Nazis.[11] In 2018, a provision in an appropriations bill passed by the U.S. Congress blocked military aid to Azov on the grounds of its white supremacist ideology.[6] Members of the regiment come from 22 countries and are of various back grounds SO NOW THE UK ,US ,EU ARE NOW ARMING NEO NAZIS

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  28. We must never forget that during World War II the Lvov region in Ukraine, today Lviv, had its "own" 14th Galician SS Panzer Grenadier Division, made up entirely of Ukrainians.

    According to Reuters, the Azov regiment comprises 19 nationalities, including German, English, Austrian, American, French, Swiss, and others. Furthermore, the Azov battalion flag is that of the SS DAS REICH.

    On the other hand, the US congress that previously identified this group as terrorists recently approved billions of dollars in military and economic aid. Therefore, we are supporting neo-Nazi ideologists.

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