These paramilitary troops are from the Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria which is a small, mostly Muslim republic in the far south of the Russian Federation that borders the nation of Georgia. Rosgvardia is an internal security paramilitary police force designed to keep the locals in line with Putin's policies. They are not trained for large scale combat; coming under mortar and artillery fire is not something that they signed up for. Putin sent in Rosgvardia forces with the idea that Ukraine would quickly fall and that Rosgvardia would keep the Ukrainian civilians in line. Things didn't exactly work out the way he planned.