The regiment, a part of the 98th Guards Airborne Division, was considered to be one of Russia's elite units,[3] but suffered large losses during the Russian invasion of Ukraine that started in February 2022.

On 24 August, around 12:15 AM, a column of BMD-2s of the regiment was hit by a Ukrainian anti-tank squad of the 51st Mechanized Brigade near Kuteinykove village, 13 km West of Amvrosiivka town.

[14][4] Paratroopers of the 331st Airborne Regiment were spotted in other regions of Ukraine occupied by pro-Russian forces: in Stanitsa-Luhanska village in March 2015,[15] and in Donetsk in August 2016.

[2] As of 2 April 2022, the BBC had verified the deaths of 39 soldiers from the regiment, but noted that "since none of those fatalities is more recent than the 13 March, it can be supposed that dozens more will emerge in the coming weeks".

[5] Compiling information involved the BBC checking accounts on V'Kontakte—the Russian "Facebook"—and local media reporting, then cross-referencing with satellite and Google Street View images.

For example, a cluster of death announcements on Kostroma social media in February indicated that elements of the 331st had been engaged in Kreminna.