There is a unit of the 247th Caucasian Cossacks Air Assault Regiment among the Russian invasion forces concentrated near the Ukrainian border
A battalion or company tactical group of this military unit has been observed for the past few months near the border. Military equipment attached to that regiment has appeared in the Internet many times.
Military unit No. 54801 (247th Air Assault Regiment) is a part of the 7th Guards Airborne Division of the Russian Federation which has its headquarters in Novorossiysk, Russia. The regiment itself is based in Stavropol, and has a personnel complement of approximately 1,600 people. The regiment is armed with different types of armored vehicles and self-propelled mortars 2S9 ‘NONA’. The regiment participated in the war in Chechnya and in the Russian attack on Georgia in August, 2008.
You can see that the Russian Command generously endow the personnel drawn into the aggression against Ukraine with medals. First the Russians handed out ‘Crimea Is Ours’ rattles (known as a medal ‘For returning the Crimea’), which is informally called by the Russians themselves a medal ‘For the Forcing Out of Crimea’. Now the Command hands out medals ‘For Military Valor’ signed by the military unit commander Col. R.Yuvakayev (see the photo below, the medal was issued on September 4, 2014)
Information is based on data from open sources and social networks.
The information is the article could be incomplete, any reasonable additions or comments are welcome.
Original article by Irakli Komakhidze, translated by Oxana Tinko, edited by Larry Field.