The group attracted media attention after it shared photos of its team members taking part in Ukraine's military incursion into Russia's Kursk Region last week. The group's official account on Instagram* shared a controversial photo showing three members of the group posing in front of a military vehicle, with the caption saying "The boys in Kursk" and the post’s geolocation tagged as "Kursk, Russia." On Tuesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry summoned US Charge d'Affaires Stephanie Holmes to lodge a protest in connection with the actions of US mercenaries in the Kursk Region.
The Forward Observations Group, a US-based private mercenary firm, posts a picture tagged "The Boys of Kursk" on August 16, 2024. Published under fair use.
An Instagram account believed to belong to the group's founder, former US infantry soldier Derrick Bales, showed that FOG had been operating in the conflict zone in Ukraine for over two years.
Bales uses "Raoul Duke" as a pseudonym for his personal account, under the handle "raoulduke_69," on Instagram. Public pictures of Bales show the same tattoos on both of his arms as the person appearing under the "raoulduke_69" account.
Raoul Duke was the pseudonym Hunter S. Thompson used for his seminal gonzo journalism novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
Bales' first post related to FOG’s activities in Ukraine dated back to as early as February 26, 2022, two days after Russia's special military operation began. In his post, Bales shared a photo of a broken armored vehicle with the group's flag with a canoe on it with the caption "Canoe szn [Ukrainian flag emoji] [black flag emoji]."
Bales went on to share a series of photos apparently showing members of the group taking part in military operations with the geolocation tagged as "Kyiv, Ukraine."
In subsequent posts from the same account, Bales showed possible members of the group engaging in various kinds of military operations in the conflict zone in Ukraine. In a video posted on February 18, 2024, Bales showed a person apparently laying an anti-tank mine with the caption "Back with the boys next month. [Ukrainian flag emoji] [black flag emoji]."
In a photo posted on April 25, a person could be seen operating a drone with the geolocation tagged as "Chasiv Yar," which is the city of Chasov Yar (also known as Chasiv Yar) in the Donetsk People's Republic, where the fighting is currently taking place. Judging by the tattoos on the person's hand, it appears that it was Bales himself operating the drone in the photo.
The most recent post from the account on Tuesday showed a person with the FOG patch on his chest carrying what appears to be an artillery shell, with the geolocation tagged as "Chasiv Yar" once again.
The posts on the account tagged FOG’s official account on Instagram in various posts, indicating the account's strong link to FOG.
According to a post on Reddit, FOG also supported at least one Ukrainian SSO unit, the 73rd Maritime Special Operations Regiment, by serving as a mortar team for it, as well as passing along tactics and medical training.
In March, the Russian Defense Ministry said that 13,387 mercenaries had arrived in Ukraine since the beginning of Russia's special military operation. Back then, as many as 5,962 mercenaries were reportedly eliminated.
*owned by Meta, banned in Russia for extremism.