The Russian Ministry of Defense is increasingly centralizing command and control over irregular forces, which is likely to facilitate their use in offensive operations in Ukraine. This is stated in a report by the British Ministry of Defense intelligence, UNN reports .
Details
The report notes that in February 2023, the Russian military created a "volunteer corps" that united more than 20,000 mercenaries, reservists and former prisoners serving in numerous irregular units under a single system of management and control.
According to British intelligence, since the creation of the Volunteer Corps, irregulars have been increasingly used in offensive operations for which they are ill-suited. Russia's irregulars are mostly light infantry units that lack integrated artillery or air support, making them more vulnerable than Russia's regular forces.
Thus, over the past 9 months, Russian irregular units have experienced a proportionally higher level of losses than Russian regular units,