page_title: Special Forces of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces
section_title: Known operations
hierarchical_section_title: Special Forces of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces / History / Russian Federation era / Known operations
caption_attribution_description: English: Russian Spetsnaz GRU (2008)
context_page_description: Special Forces of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, commonly known as the Spetsnaz G.U. or Spetsnaz GRU is the special forces of the G.U., the foreign military intelligence agency of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.
  The Spetsnaz GRU was formed in 1949, the first spetsnaz force in the Soviet Union, as the military force of the Main Intelligence Directorate, the foreign military intelligence agency of the Soviet Armed Forces. The force was designed in the context of the Cold War to carry out reconnaissance and sabotage against enemy targets in the form of special reconnaissance and direct action attacks. The Spetsnaz GRU inspired additional spetsnaz forces attached to other Soviet intelligence agencies, such as the Vympel and Alpha Group of the KGB.
context_section_description: Throughout the mid-1990s to 2000, Spetsnaz GRU were involved in both the First Chechen War and more prominently in the Second Chechen War and also the Invasion of Dagestan in August 1999. The special forces learned invaluable lessons from the first war and transformed into a better and more effective fighting force and were instrumental in Russia's and the Russian backed government's success in the second war.
  In 2003, during the Second Chechen War, the GRU formed the Special Battalions Vostok and Zapad, two ethnic Chechen units that belonged to the Spetsnaz GRU which fought primarily in Chechnya, and also in the 2008 Russo-Georgian War as well as peacekeeping operations after the 2006 Lebanon War.
  GRU Spetsnaz maintains an airborne unit, the Separate Spetsnaz Airborne Reconnaissance Unit (codenamed No. 48427), which participated in the 2008 Georgian War. The unit is housed at Matrosskaya Tishina 10 in Moscow.
  After the Crimean crisis and the start of the rebel insurgency by pro-Russian rebels, Ukraine has on numerous occasions accused various Spetsnaz forces of aiding the rebels and even fighting on the ground in Eastern Ukraine. In December 2014, Ukrainian military claimed that the Spetsnaz GRU was involved in attacks on an airport in Donetsk which was later captured by DPR in the battle.
  In late 2015, GRU special forces operators were reportedly involved in the Syrian Civil War, appearing in the government offensives of Aleppo and Homs. GRU officials have also visited Qamishli, near the border with Turkey.
caption: Spetsnaz GRU during the 2008 Russo-Georgian War
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