The elite Russian regiment that became a symbol of Putin’s failures

They were told they were “the best of the best”. Russia’s 331st Guards Parachute Regiment is regarded as the pick of Vladimir Putin’s army, whose service as an airmobile reserve goes back decades to Soviet times. Now, with heavy losses and a diminished reputation, the regiment has come to represent the failure of Russia’s army to achieve a quick war in Ukraine and the heavy price now being paid.

I’ve spent the last year tracking the 331st regiment for BBC Newsnight and our research has confirmed at least 94 soldiers from the unit have been killed since it joined the invasion in February 2022. When those missing in action (often their bodies cannot be recovered), seriously wounded, deserted and taken prisoner are added to the total of confirmed fatalities, it’s likely that the number of men put out of action could be several hundred.

Traditionally, the regiment’s soldiers have been “contraktniki” – professionals recruited into the army following their national service, so mostly men in their twenties. Although the airborne forces can be recruited from anywhere in Russia, a strong local association has built up between the 331st and Kostroma, a city of around a quarter of a million inhabitants about 300km north-east of Moscow. The married paratroopers’ families tend to live there and so do hundreds of ex-soldiers from the 331st Regiment who have settled in the city.

Combing through social and local media in Kostroma reveals much about the way the Kremlin is sustaining the long war as well as the failures of its military system.

As a showpiece unit, the 331st marched in Red Square parades. It had also served in the Chechen wars, and Kosovo, and was accused by the Ukrainians of massacring hundreds of their soldiers during 2014’s Donbas conflict. The regiment joined February’s ill-fated drive on Kyiv with two battalion groups (a total of 1000-1,200 troops). At the time the paratroopers, like many Russian units, were deceived by their commanders, being told they were heading on a training exercise. This lie, repeated to families back in Kostroma, added to their distress when the casualty reports started coming in.

The regiment was heavily engaged in fighting near Hostomel airfield during which dozens of men were killed, including Colonel Sergei Sukharev, who was posthumously awarded the Hero of the Russian Federation medal. Since then it has been in all the main flash points, from Izum early last summer, to Kherson later on, and Kreminna (in Luhansk) this February. Each of these battles has been followed by the arrival of casualty replacements and seen a gradual shrinkage of the unit.

During the early weeks of the war, with an effective news blackout, rumours ran rife as we monitored local groups on V’Kontakte, the Russian equivalent of Facebook. “What’s happening? When will this end?” one user wrote.

Then we started to see local news coverage of Sergey Sitnikov, Kostroma’s Kremlin-appointed governor and a former CO of the 331st, visiting wounded paratroopers. There were commemorations for fallen soldiers too, and fund-raising drives to send the regiment warm clothes. In December, Sitnikov was seen visiting positions in Ukraine, telling viewers that “we need to help [the] guys so they have decent conditions”. He had brought with him crowdfunded care packages and commercially sold drones.

These demonstrations of concern, and implicit acknowledgement of the army’s failure to supply these things on its own, might seem rather tame, but they stand in contrast with Putin’s apparent reluctance to visit frontline soldiers or admit anything is going wrong.

A Kostroma TV station has adopted a trend seen in a few Russian garrison towns, of wives and mothers posting pictures of themselves with the absent soldier’s uniform. The grieving mother of a dead paratrooper from the 331st Regiment remembered the Great Patriotic War (as Russia calls its 1941-45 fight against the Nazis), and added: “I hope there will be stories written about our guys.”

These are signs of a qualified openness about the human cost of this war. Local TV last November showed around 150 men, called up as part of the mobilisation ordered by Putin, parading in Kostroma before being sent to the front.

The rate at which the regiment’s soldiers are dying has slowed – with the death toll standing at 39 two months into the war, 62 five months after the invasion and now, at the 14-month point, reaching 94.

This hints at deliberate attempts by Russian generals to limit their losses last summer and autumn, as well as some improvement in their tactics. It’s now believed that the 331st continues to fight with a number of company groups, spearheading attacks that probably total a few hundred soldiers.

Back in Kostroma, the regimental communities remain strong – the town being home to an airborne artillery regiment and one of infantry as well as the 331st. Death and serious injury continues to be documented on local media. As to the purpose of this fight (and indeed the suffering being inflicted on Ukraine’s civilians), that’s another question.

“Ukraine isn’t my Motherland, our boys are dying for nothing,” one person recently wrote on Kostroma V’Kontakte page. Another swiftly answered: “That’s a stupid opinion. No point in writing that stuff here.”

In the town’s graveyard, there is plenty of evidence of the price being paid for Russia’s invasion. Buried too is the regiment's reputation as “the best of the best”.

Additional research by Maria Jevstafjeva and Louis Harris-White

Russia’s Long War, a new film which forms part of the BBC’s War in Ukraine collection, is available on BBC iPlayer now. 

BBC Newsnight airs Monday to Friday, 10.30pm BST, BBC Two.