Families Search for Missing Russian Naval Crews Sent as Infantry to Ukraine

In a move that once again highlighted Moscow’s growing manpower deficit on the front line in its war with Ukraine, Russia has formed a mechanized assault group – military unit 78987 codenamed “Fregat (Frigate).” The battalion-sized group is largely made up of the aircraft carrier’s crew, Admiral Kuznetsov.

After being initially deployed to the Kharkiv region, the unit has reportedly since been relocated to the Donetsk region and is involved in the assault on Ukrainian defenses around Pokrovsk.

The move became evident in early August when posts on social media looking for news of the whereabouts of one of the ship’s crew, Oleg Sosedov, began to appear. The appeals said he was last heard preparing to take part in an assault on the border village of Sotnytsky Kozachok in the Kharkiv region – but the search proved fruitless, Sosedov was never found.

This initial search was followed up by the open-source intelligence (OSINT) researcher “Moklasen” who found several more requests on the Russian Vkontakte social media platform for help in finding members of military unit 78987:

The Admiral Kuznetsov, dubbed by many as the world’s most troubled warship, is Russia’s only remaining traditional aircraft carrier. The vessel has been out of action since 2017, undergoing extensive repairs to damage received during operations off the coast of Syria, a process that has been beset by several incidents, some suspicious.

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The head of the Kupiansk military administration said the Russian assaults one day earlier as "very difficult" but said the Russian troops retreated and the situation was again under control.

In 2018, the drydock, in which the ship was being worked, began to sink, damaging the carrier’s deck. In 2019 a large fire on board caused further serious damage and injured several crew members. Originally scheduled for return to service in 2024, it is currently not known if and when repairs to the Admiral Kuznetsov will be completed.

In addition to this reported redeployment of seamen as infantry, there are extensive accounts of personnel from Russia’s Aerospace Forces also being retrained and deployed to serve as foot soldiers. According to the pro-Kremlin milbloggers, Ilya Tumanov, who runs the FighterBomber Telegram channel, as well as the Astra news site, a number of these ad-hoc units have been deployed on combat operations in the Kursk region.

The independent Russian news site iStories has dubbed these groups as “space infantry” made up as they are of members of security, logistics, mechanics and engineer companies from the air force units, including nuclear strike warning stations, cosmodromes and heavy bomber regiments. The formations are led by a small number of air force officers with little or no combat experience.

The news outlet’s report also recounts the familiar story of the families of these service personnel seeking news of their fate having lost contact with them since they were deployed on operations.

The deployment of these unconventional military formations highlights once again Russia’s continuing struggle to sustaining its manpower levels in the ongoing, long-drawn-out war in Ukraine.