Ukraine’s cross-border incursion into Russia has disrupted Russian mercenaries’ plans in junta-led Burkina Faso, with many now pulled out to help boost Moscow’s defences back home, a paramilitary commander said on Friday.
Viktor Yermolaev, head of a paramilitary unit known as Medvedi (Bears) in Russia and the Bear Brigade in the West, said many of his fighters had left the West African country, while some stayed behind.
Ukraine earlier this month launched the unprecedented incursion into Russia’s western Kursk region, adding a new factor in the over two year war that began in February 2022 with Moscow’s invasion of its neighbour.
The Bear Brigade is one of several such mercenary groups that emerged in recent years alongside the now defunct Wagner Group of the late Yevgeny Prigozhin and Western analysts say are closely linked to the Russian state.
“We thought Ukrainians wanted to end this war and sit down at the negotiating table, but after their entry into the Kursk region we see that they chose the path of war, and war is our job,” said Yermolaev, who is also known by his call sign Jedi.