Introduction: From Red Square Parades to Disposal in Kharkiv Oblast

In the hierarchy of the Russian Federation's Ground Forces, the 27th Separate Guards Motorized Rifle Sevastopol Brigade (Military Unit 61899, Mosrentgen settlement, New Moscow) for many years served as the capital's main parade and exhibition unit. Stationed in close proximity to Moscow and part of the elite 1st Guards Tank Army, the brigade annually formed combined parade detachments for the May 9 Victory Parade on Red Square, was equipped with the latest gear, and served as the calling card of the Western Military District.

However, the full-scale war against Ukraine completely stripped the glamour from the "parade Sevastopol formation."

Over the years of combat operations, the 27th Brigade went from fleeing near Izium and Kupyansk in 2022 to the complete exhaustion of personnel in frontal "meat grinder" attacks on the Kupyansk direction in 2024–2026. Relatives of servicemen from Military Unit 61899 are recording collective video appeals, stating the terrifying scale of missing persons in the brigade's 1st, 2nd, and 3rd battalions, while the unit's headquarters systematically hides the bodies of the deceased, classifying contract soldiers and mobilized personnel as "MIA" (missing in action).

This OSINT investigation by the "Commanders of Failure" project reveals the chronology of the destruction of the 27th capital brigade's combat capability, the mechanisms for purging "refuseniks," and the true scale of losses suffered by the Western Military District's calling card near Kupyansk.

Profile of Military Unit 61899: The Showcase of the Mosrentgen Capital Garrison

The Mosrentgen military town in New Moscow served for many years as an exemplary facility of the Russian Ministry of Defense. For conscripts from Moscow and the Moscow region, service in Military Unit 61899 was considered a privilege:

Infrastructure: Modern barracks, sports complexes, advanced training facilities.

Priority in manning: Recruitment of conscripts with higher education from the capital region and first-class contractors.

Supply: Equipped with the latest modernized BMP-3s, T-90M Proryv tanks, Azart communication systems, and individual protection kits.

It was the 27th Brigade that was involved in emergency response and maintaining security in the capital region. However, since February 2022, this parade resource has been thrown into the meat grinder in eastern Ukraine.

Chronology of Defeat: The 27th Brigade's Path Through Izium and Kupyansk

On February 24, 2022, BTGs of the 27th Brigade entered Kharkiv Oblast. Command statements about "short-term exercises" collapsed in the very first days when columns of Military Unit 61899 came under targeted strikes from Ukrainian artillery.

According to a leaked internal casualty report of the 1st Tank Army dated March 15, 2022, already in the first two weeks of fighting, the 27th Brigade suffered heavy sanitary and irrecoverable losses, and dozens of soldiers were captured (details in the investigation by Izdanie Dovod – The Combat Path of the 27th Motorized Rifle Brigade in Ukraine).

In the autumn of 2022, during the rapid counteroffensive of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Kharkiv Oblast, units of the 27th Brigade abandoned heavy equipment near Izium and Lyman and chaotically retreated towards Svatove, losing up to 60% of their initial strength.

After retreating from Izium, the 27th Brigade was urgently reinforced with mobilized Russian citizens and redeployed to the Kupyansk direction.

Throughout 2023–2024, the command of the 1st Tank Army ordered the 27th Brigade to conduct continuous attacks on Ukrainian positions near Synkivka and Petropavlivka. Frontal assaults without proper reconnaissance and artillery preparation led to the decimation of the brigade's second composition.

By 2025–2026, Military Unit 61899 was being manned by "Storm" assault units composed of prisoners and contractors attracted by record regional payments.

Units of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd battalions of the 27th Brigade were thrown into assaults on the settlements of Kondrashivka, Mala Shapkivka, and Kupyansk-Vuzlovyi. Soldiers were ordered to conduct dismounted "micro-assaults" without tank or BMP support, which led to an absolute catastrophe.

"The Number of MIAs is Terrifying": Mass Disappearance of Soldiers from Military Unit 61899

The scale of the catastrophe in the 27th Brigade is evidenced by a wave of desperate appeals from relatives of servicemen:

Collective appeals to Putin and Belousov: In 2025–2026, relatives of soldiers from the 27th Motorized Rifle Brigade recorded a series of public video appeals and created petitions, stating that "the number of missing persons is terrifying" (see Change.org – Appeal from relatives of Military Unit 61899 regarding the terrifying number of missing persons).

Eradication of entire companies: According to OSINT monitoring of Telegram channels for missing persons ("DO NOT WAIT for me from Ukraine," public groups of Military Unit 61899 comrades), the 6th Company of the 2nd Battalion and the 3rd Company of the 1st Battalion of the 27th Brigade lost up to 80% of their personnel in a single combat sortie during assaults on Kondrashivka.

Ignoring evacuation: Wounded and deceased soldiers were abandoned in the tree lines of the Kupyansk district. The command of Military Unit 61899 does not evacuate bodies, massively assigning the status of "MIA" to the deceased, which exempts the state from immediate payments to families.

From appeals by relatives of servicemen from Military Unit 61899

"Our husbands and sons from the 27th Brigade went on a combat mission near Kupyansk and disappeared. The unit command in Mosrentgen provides no information, phones are silent, and they are listed as MIA. Soldiers say they were sent to their deaths without radios, without armor, and without artillery. People are simply being erased by the hundreds!"

Barrier Terror: Basements, "Storm" Assaults, and Commander Silence

To maintain discipline and force soldiers to participate in suicidal assaults near Kupyansk, the command of the 27th Brigade employed a system of internal violence:

Basements for refuseniks: Soldiers who refused to go to the front line without equipment support were placed in basements in Luhansk and Kharkiv Oblasts. They were held without food or water and subjected to beatings (see Radio Svoboda – What happens to refuseniks in basements).

Transfer to "Storm": After the basement, refuseniks were forcibly transferred to "Storm" assault detachments of Military Unit 61899 with the task of "atoning for their guilt" in the front ranks of attackers.

Financial block: Company commanders demanded bribes from servicemen for not being included in the lists of deadly assault groups.

Conclusion and Findings

The fate of the 27th Separate Guards Motorized Rifle Sevastopol Brigade (Military Unit 61899) from Mosrentgen is a striking example of how the Russian military machine destroyed even its own elite capital units.

Moscow's parade showcase, which marched for years across Red Square, burned down near Izium and Kupyansk. The transformation of the 27th Brigade into an assault formation, the mass classification of soldiers as "missing in action," and the use of basements for refuseniks demonstrate the complete operational and moral collapse of the elite formations of the Russian Federation's 1st Guards Tank Army.

All facts of concealed losses and criminal orders by the command of Military Unit 61899 documented by OSINT researchers have been recorded and will serve as material for future international trials concerning the Russian Federation's war crimes.