Russia's Storm-Z units were meant to be elite but became throwaway troops

In April 2023, reports began circulating about a new formation of soldiers Moscow was developing to assist its armed forces in Ukraine. The new forces were known as Storm-Z units and they had an important purpose on the battlefield.

Newsweek reported at the time that Storm-Z units were described by a Ukrainian source as "independent, joint, tactical, combined arms" groups being formed "for immediate operational use in performing particularly complex combat missions."

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Storm-Z units had a flexible structure and they were planned to be used to fight in both cities and areas with difficult terrain. Their assignments would be to capture critical strongpoints, buildings, and structures according to the Ukrainian source.

Moscow appeared to be trying to develop what some considered at the time to be a new type of elite force, but that isn't what Russia's Storm-Z units became once they began being used in combat.

According to an October 2023  intelligence update by Britain’s Ministry of Defence, the Russian Armed Forces tried to build elite assault Storm-Z units as a means to conquer Ukraine but they turned into something more akin to penal battalions. 

Russia was plagued by several issues following the invasion of Ukraine but chief among the problems that faced Vladimir Putin and his generals was the inability of their military to prosecute successful offensive campaigns. 

Brutal fighting in Ukraine necessitated a change in tactics on both sides and one of the results of Russian planning was the development of smaller groupings of soldiers. This is why Moscow’s vaunted Storm-Z units were originally created in 2022. 

The British Ministry of Defense reported that Storm-Z units are company-sized groups of soldiers that Moscow likely originally envisioned would become a “relatively elite organization,” though that never happened. 

Storm-Z assault groups were meant to be used in ways that would allow them to seize the tactical initiative on the battlefield. However, the units turned out to be less elite and more what Britain's Defence Ministry called penal battalions. 

Russia’s Storm-Z units have “effectively become penal battalions” the defense ministry update explained, adding that the groups were filled with convicts and regular soldiers that were in the units due to disciplinary charges. 

The intelligence update also added that there had been multiple reports suggesting that Storm-Z units were given the lowest priority for "logistical and medical support, while repeatedly being ordered to attack." 

Despite the perceived ineffectiveness of Russia's Storm-Z units, Moscow's 'elite' soldiers often conducted an effective defense based on the defense ministry's assessments. But the state of Russia’s Storm-Z units revealed a bigger issue with Msocow's armed forces the intel update added.  

“The existence of Shtorm-Z highlights the extreme difficulty Russia has in generating combat infantry capable of conducting effective offensive operations,” the update explained, which wasn't good for Russian leadership in Moscow. 

Knowledge about the quality of Russia’s Storm-Z units may be fairly widespread in the country’s military forces as well. A report from Reuters in early October 2023 noted that a regular Russian soldier knew of Storm-Z and their poor performance.

"Storm fighters, they're just meat," stated the Russian soldier who was from Unit No. 40318 and administered medical treatment to a group of troops from a Storm-Z unit while on deployment in Bakhmut during May and June 2023. 

The unnamed soldier explained that officers considered those serving in Storm-Z units to be of lesser quality and went on to reveal that being caught with alcohol could be enough to get a soldier sent to a Storm-Z unit. 

"If the commandants catch anyone with the smell of alcohol on their breath, then they immediately send them to the Storm squads," the soldier explained. But what else do we know about these soldiers?

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Reuters noted that the exact size of Storm-Z formations was not known but did discover through interviews with those familiar with the units that hundreds of Storm-Z soldiers have been deployed at the front and were embedded with regular units. 

Storm-Z fighters are often sent to the most exposed portions of Russia's frontlines and that has led to higher casualties among the units according to men who served in them. One fighter embedded with the 237th Regiment interviewed by Reuters said that 15 of the 120 troops in his unit were killed on deployment in Bakhmut. 

Newsweek spoke with Jack Watling of the London-based defense think tank the Royal United Services Institute about Russia’s Storm-Z units and he explained commanders "send them forward in the expectation that they will be killed.”

The British Ministry of Defence reported that Storm-Z units are still relied on heavily for local offensive operations in Ukraine but the ministry didn’t provide any examples of the types of battles the units have recently fought.