Russian VDV were inherited from the Soviet Union, where they were supposed to conduct large scale airborne operations deep in enemy territory. They were also, from certain POV, a strategic equivalent of US Marines, as a relatively lightly armed, highly mobile (on strategic level) and highly trained force which could be quickly sent where they were needed. When Washington D.C. had a problem which required a large force operating far away from home, the answer often was: "Send the marines." Moscow OTOH, would send VDV.
In Afghanistan VDV had to fight a somewhat different kind of war than they were created for but being trained as aeromobile force and with training superior to a regular Soviet Army units they were an obvious choice.
The problem that the Russian VDV has is that except for first days the VDV is/was used as a regular infantry. It is mostly due to poor training of the majority of Russian mechanized infantry. There is also no chance for a serious airborne operation anymore, with Ukrainian anti air defense getting much stronger. But no airborne force is designed to fight an attrition war. IIRC a Russian airborne batalion has much less men than a mechanized infantry batalion, so the same number of lost soldiers would harm the latter, but cripple the former. And elite soldiers die from artillery just easily than simple grunts. Replacing them is harder though.
I also heard an opinion that Russian VDV are not as well trained as the Soviet airborne troops. That many Russian VDV officers got their position due to family connections so they could impress the others with their blue berets. And that VDV are simply decently trained soldiers, who are still superior to an average Russian soldier. However I can not verify that. VDV fought in some previous conflicts so they must have at least a number of hardened in battle veterans. It is possible that those veterans were concentrated in some crack units, which were poorly used (or did not receive support they needed) and were killed rather quickly.
Another problem is the famous corruption in the Russian Army which could seriously limit combat ability of the VDV. The equipment they had on paper might be not working ornot exist at all, officialy conducted exercises might have never happened etc.
In short: I am not sure if there was anything wrong with organization, training or equipment of the Soviet VDV. They seemed to be designed well enough for large landings during WW3. Not so well for an anti-guerilla warfare, but it was not what they were created for.
The Russian VDV seems to be, first of all, poorly used, at least in Ukraine. With time many of the supposedly elite soldiers were killed off and replaced by hastily trained recruits. And there is no chance for any air landing anymore.
