Soviet Army In August 1967, the 882nd Motor Rifle Regiment of the
60th Tank Division, based at
Gorky in the
Moscow Military District, was transferred to a mobilization motor rifle division in the
Far Eastern Military District. The regiment arrived at Knayaze-Volkonskoye and joined the
129th Motor Rifle Training Division in October 1967. At the end of 1970 it was moved to Krasnaya Rechka and became part of the
270th Motor Rifle Division in the 45th Army Corps. On 1 November 1972, the division became part of the
15th Army. In October 1974, the regiment became a ready reaction unit. On 11 May 1980, it was reduced to a Category B strength. In accordance with a 26 June 2012 directive, the brigade was relocated to Knyaze-Volkonskoye. In January 2014, a
T-72 tank of the brigade exploded during target practice, killing an officer and two conscript soldiers.
Russian invasion of Ukraine The unit was deployed northwest of Kyiv during the initial 2022
Russian invasion of Ukraine. The brigade was named by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense as responsible for the
Bucha massacre in March, where bodies were found mutilated and burnt, and girls as young as fourteen reported being raped. After the Russian retreat from Kyiv Oblast, the brigade was rushed to redeploy and participate in the
battle of Donbas. In April, the brigade was reported to have been engaged by Ukrainian forces at Izium, and taken losses there. In June, Ukraine claimed to have destroyed almost all of the 35th Combined Arms Army there. According to Ukraine, Russians published photos of their dead soldiers from the brigade. Citing a report from
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the
Institute for the Study of War concluded that the brigade had likely been destroyed as "part of an intentional
Kremlin effort to conceal war crimes it committed in
Kyiv Oblast." The report went further stating that of the 1,500 members of the brigade, losses were estimated at 200-300 killed and as much as 700–1,050 wounded during fighting at Izium and
Sloviansk, and that the unit "largely ceased to exist." The unit was then directly hit by the main Ukrainian thrust during the Kharkiv counteroffensive, and afterwards ceased to be mentioned in the Russian order of battle again, corroborating reports by the Ukrainians that the Brigade's remnants had suffered 90% casualties during the offensive, with only a few dozen managing to escape encirclement and subsequent destruction. == References ==