Mercenaries, redeployed battalions… Russian maneuvers to strengthen the Kursk front – L’Express

Mercenaries redeployed battalions… Russian maneuvers to strengthen the Kursk front

Barely having arrived on Burkinabe territory, Russian mercenaries from the private company Brigade Bear left the West African country to defend the Russian region of Kursk, where Ukraine has been leading an offensive for three weeks now, one of their leaders told AFP, confirming information revealed by The Worlde.

In June, an African diplomatic source told AFP of the arrival from neighboring Mali of “two rotations of planes carrying Russian instructors” – a term generally used to refer to Russian mercenaries. The latter have been operating in Burkina Faso since late 2023, where they provide support to the regime of Captain Ibrahim Traoré.

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According to various estimates, confirmed by a Western security source, about a hundred mercenaries have left Burkina out of some 300 men. Viktor Yermolaev, the commander of the Bear Brigade, also called “Jedi”, had confirmed this withdrawal to the World : “When the enemy comes to our Russian territory, all Russian soldiers forget about internal problems and unite against a common enemy.” A few days ago, the Telegram channel of the Bears, one of the many avatars of the Russian paramilitary deployment on the continent, indicated that “due to recent events, the brigade is returning to Crimea,” annexed by Russia in 2014, where it is based.

“Common enemy”

While the Bears deny any connection to the government, Jack Margolin, an expert on Russian mercenaries, describes them as being “under the control of the Ministry of Defense” and affiliated with a military unit that supplied Wagner as early as 2014. “The Bears are a group of volunteers at their core,” Lou Osborn of the Swiss NGO All Eyes On Wagner (AEOW), whose members have signed a contract with Russian military intelligence (GRU), told AFP.

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This redeployment comes at a time when Russia is in difficulty due to the surprise operation carried out by Ukraine in Kursk since August 6, which it is struggling to repel. kyiv claims to want to force Russia to redeploy its troops to attack in eastern Ukraine, to create a “buffer zone” to protect the civilian population near the border and to push Moscow to “fair” negotiations. In almost a month, it has claimed the capture of a hundred localities, forcing more than 130,000 Russian civilians to evacuate.

Redeployment of forces

“So far, the Ukrainian incursion has prompted the Russian military to redeploy up to 11 battalions and four Russian force groups from elsewhere in the theater of operations to the front line in Kursk Oblast,” the think tank said in mid-August. Institute for the Study of War. A redeployment that has made it possible to begin to contain the Ukrainian troops, but which would only be “a first phase of the Russian response in the Kursk Oblast”. “Putin and the Kremlin will almost certainly try to retake Russian territory”, the ISW further analyzed.

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American intelligence is indeed convinced that Vladimir Putin is preparing to launch a counter-offensive to try to retake the territories conquered by Ukraine. “We must expect that this will be a difficult battle for the Russians,” indicated, Wednesday, August 28, the deputy director of the CIA, David Cohen, during a conference on national security, reports Reuters. And although kyiv has said it has no intention of annexing the conquered area, Ukrainian troops are building defensive lines and it appears they intend to hold on to “some of this territory for some time,” Cohen continued.

Zelensky says he is seeking a “fair” peace deal with neighboring Russia, meaning no territorial concessions, which requires Kiev to be in a strong position in the talks. Ukraine claims to control more than 1,200 square kilometers (463 square miles) of the Kursk region. Putin has repeatedly said that a ceasefire and talks are possible only if Kiev cedes the areas that Russia claims to have annexed — conditions unacceptable to kyiv and its Western allies.

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