ISW: Kremlin Eliminates Russian Motorized Rifle Brigade To Conceal War Crimes

The brigade was involved in the atrocities in Bucha.

With the consent of the Kremlin, the 64th Separate Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade of the 35th All-Russian Army of Russia has probably been destroyed.

This was reported by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

The brigade was involved in war crimes in Kyiv Region, including in Bucha.

Thus, it is noted that Radio Svaboda investigative journalist Mark Krutau has conducted an investigation regarding the brigade after its involvement in the atrocities in Bucha and came to the conclusion that after heavy fighting in the Izyum and Sloviansk directions, the brigade practically ceased to exist.

Krutau said that out of 1,500 soldiers, 200 to 300 probably died. He quoted CNA Russia Studies director Michael Kofman as saying that the typical ratio of killed to wounded in combat is about 1 to 3.5, meaning that the unit had 700 to 1,000 wounded in combat.

In the Russian Federation, formations that suffer serious losses are usually disbanded, and the remaining soldiers are transferred to other units. However, this will not work in the case of the 64th separate motor rifle brigade. President Vladimir Putin gave it the honorary title of a "guard unit" on April 18 after the evidence of committing war crimes in Bucha appeared.

The brigade was then urgently sent back, but this time to eastern Ukraine, with no time for the military to rest, re-equip, receive reinforcements or recover. At the time, according to ISW, there were already rumours that the Kremlin was seeking to destroy the brigade in combat to avoid revealing its war crimes.