For the Ukrainians, they are a scourge: Russian infiltration groups from Senezh manage to penetrate the territory to carry out sabotage operations. Almost elusive, they leave behind significant military damage, but also many civilian victims.
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By mid-summer, the news was making the rounds of Ukrainian news channels. On July 28, near the village of Mkhy, in Chernihiv regionfive Russian saboteurs were killed. Aged between 28 and 36, these men fell into an ambush set by Ukrainian special forces a good hour’s walk from their border. A notable success for kyiv: the dead belong to Senezh, an elite unit of the Russian army.
” Ukrainian special services have been trying to oust the Senezh military for over a year, because these special forces are classified as top secret and highly dangerous. ” explains the team of Molfar, a private investigation agency open source that collaborates with the military, in a presentation to the press.
Ukrainians accuse these shadowy commandos of regularly assassinating civilians they come across. Senezh has a ““bloody ritual”, continues the Molfar team. After graduation, once integrated into the subversive reconnaissance groups, they are supposed to penetrate Ukrainian territory and bring back a killed Ukrainian. If they fail to bring back a soldier, they take a civilian. ” Unverifiable information, as this unit remains mysterious, including in its own country.
Dream of Western Special Forces
Like many countries, the Soviet Union began developing special forces units at the end of World War II. These commandos, known as spetsnaz in Russian, were mostly affiliated with military intelligence, the GRU, but also later with the KGB and the navy. The spetsnaz, decrypts Vincent Tourret, specialist in Russian military strategyit is one of the first elements used to destroy enemy artillery, including nuclear. They speak of “troop strikes“: spetsnaz are sent ahead to destroy multiple rocket launchers or airfields, for example. »
GRU spetsnaz are widely used in Afghanistan in the 1980sand in the various wars in Chechnya. But rather than being used for infiltration and intelligence gathering, they act as shock infantry. In 2008, they were blamed for the failures of the Russian army in Georgia, precisely because they had not been able to seek out the information necessary for the general staff to adapt its strategy. The authorities decided that the special forces needed to be reformed and toured Western capitals to draw inspiration from the most respected units in the field.
A first unit nicknamed Senezh, named after the lake near which this force is installed, about sixty kilometers north of Moscow, was created in 1999. It became the Special Operations Command in 2013 and aims to bring together seasoned men in several specialized training centers, including one which will be installed in Sevastopol, in occupied Crimea.
” The training of these units is more important, explains Tor Bukkvoll, a researcher at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI). They are almost all officers, have experience and are equipped with the best equipment. “The number of troops is estimated at between 1,000 and 1,500 men depending on the source. Unlike the GRU spetsnaz, they are all contract workers: no conscripts, only veterans.
More brutal than discreet
Senezh’s men were quickly used on the most sensitive missions. According to a study by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), they participated in securing the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi and were on the front lines of the annexation of Crimea the same year. In 2015, they were involved in the capture of Aleppo and Palmyra in Syria, where they guided Russian air strikes in support for President Bashar al-Assad’s troops.
In Ukraine, special forces – from Senezh or the GRU – are initially not used for their rare skills. They were used as conventional infantry.observes Tor Bukkvol. So they were killed in large numbers, which is a real waste of competent people for Russia. It seems that, after the panic of the first months, they began to use them in the role for which they are trained: infiltration. »
In 2023, part of Senezh is moved in the Russian region of Belgorod, to confront Ukrainian incursionsAccording to the Mostar agency, which had access to military sources, the Senezh commandos carried out about sixty sabotage operations in the border regions of Chernihiv, Sumy and Khakhiv. The Ukrainians have no doubt that they are responsible for many civilian deaths caused during these infiltrations: ” Soldiers from the Russian army have neither the skills nor the equipment to cross the border, Molfar argues. This is typical of these special units: not to take prisoners, but to kill them brutally. »
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