Russia launched an investigation after reports that a group of British SAS special operations officers were in Ukraine. Russia’s top official investigative commission said today that SAS sabotage experts are examining a report claiming it has been deployed in western Ukraine.
In the statement, it was noted that the news that SAS forces were “sent on Ukrainian soil to assist Ukrainian special services in sabotage” will be followed.
Russia’s official news agency, RIA Novosti, based its news on a Russian official today, and wrote that SAS members with British military special forces were found in Ukraine. According to the news, Britain sent about 20 SAS members to Ukraine’s Lviv region.
The SAS (Special Air Forces) affiliated with the British army serves as an elite military force trained for special operations, surveillance and counter-terrorism.
The UK Ministry of Defense did not respond to a Reuters request for information about the Russian investigation.
Britain said earlier this year that it was sending military trainers to Ukraine to train local forces in the use of anti-tank weapons. However, the British government announced on February 17, a week before the invasion of Russia, that it had withdrawn all its troops from Ukraine, except for the ambassador’s bodyguards.
Russia’s investigation into the presence of possible forces from Britain, a NATO country, in Ukraine is a serious development. It is not known what steps Russia plans to take against any SAS presence in the country. Russia has warned the West in the past not to get in the way of its “special military operation” in Ukraine.