Spetsna% GRU consists of seven brigades spread around the country, with approximately 1,500 servicemen in each--battle and support units combined.
(5) The establishment of SOC was, and probably still is, resented within the GRU. SOC was seen as both a reason for, and a symbol of, GRU's institutional loss of status.
The operation was largely covert action, most likely based on intelligence gathered previously by units connected to the Russian Black Sea fleet and possibly local agents recruited by the FSB and GRU. Pre-deployment special reconaissance by Spetsnaz-GRU may have taken place, but so far it has been difficult to find evidence of it in open sources.
These include all seven Spetsnaz GRU brigades, the VDV 45th Brigade, and the FSB.
The first GRU operative was arrested on Ukrainian soil by the Ukrainian security service SBU in March 2014.
