The russian MOD has increasingly centralized their command and control of pro-russian irregular forces, highly likely to facilitate their use in offensive operations in Ukraine, the UK Defense Intelligence reports.
In February 2023, the russian MOD established their Volunteer Corps, uniting over 20,000 volunteers, reservists, mercenaries and ex-convicts, who serve in numerous irregular units, under a single command and control framework. Since the formation of the Volunteer Corps, the russian MOD has increasingly employed irregular forces in offensive operations, to which they are ill-suited. Russia’s irregular formations are mainly light infantry units which lack integrated artillery or air support making them more brittle than russian regular formations.
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Consequently, during the last 9 months, russian irregular units have likely sustained proportionally higher casualty rates than russian regular units.
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