The lack of any battlefield success has prompted Ukraine and its NATO handlers to resort to expanded use of "revenge" sabotage missions using foreign mercenaries, Joao Claudio Pitillo, historian and researcher at the Center for the Study of the Americas at Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ), told Sputnik.
"These mercenaries are recruited, trained, and increasingly directed towards this type of sabotage action that takes the form of revenge... The realization of the impossibility of victory for Ukraine and NATO against Russia prompts expanded use of punitive actions," he said.
"Such training takes a lot of time and requires experienced personnel. Ukraine likely lacks the manpower to cover both fronts," Brazilian naval reserve officer and defense consultant Robinson Farinazzo added.
As part of Ukrainian sabotage groups, Western military personnel from elite units, such as the US Rangers, are also engaged in collecting intelligence on enemy routes, weak points, etc., which may subsequently prove useful for "NATO command and future operations on Russian territory," Farinazzo told Sputnik.
An armed group attempted to covertly infiltrate Russia’s border in the Bryansk region, but was eliminated, the Governor Alexander Bogomaz said on October 27. The current situation in the area is stable and fully controlled by the Bryansk region’s operational headquarters, he wrote on his Telegram channel.
One of the deceased bore a “tattoo of the 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, US Army Airborne Reconnaissance Regiment,” Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) – the agency in charge of Russian border security – said in a statement.
Furthermore, the personal effects of the deceased also included items such as a Canadian flag and a “notebook with tactical training notes in English,” the statement said.
Such discoveries serve as further proof that foreign mercenaries are "working on behalf of the Ukrainians,” pundits told Sputnik. It also indicates “desperation on the part of NATO and the West,” whether these militants were “part of an official NATO force” or mercenaries.
Around 15,000 mercenaries from more than 100 countries have arrived in Ukraine to fight against Russia since the beginning of Russia's special military operation, Rodion Miroshnik, Russian ambassador-at-large in charge of overseeing the Kiev regime’s crimes, said in a report obtained by Sputnik on Wednesday.
The Russian Defense Ministry has repeatedly warned foreign mercenaries against traveling to fight in Ukraine, noting that they do not have the status of combatants under international law and are not eligible for prisoner of war status.