Death of four Ukrainian soldiers on mission on Russian territory

Ukrainian soldiers during battles against Russian forces in the Donetsk region, December 23, 2022. © Libkos / AP

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In recent weeks, Russia has been the target of an upsurge in acts of sabotage committed against military targets or fuel depots.

Until now, little information has filtered out on the identity of the saboteurs and their mode of operation, but on December 26, concordant Russian and Ukrainian sources revealed the death of four Ukrainian soldiers on a mission on the territory of the Russian Federation.

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With our correspondent in Kiev,

Stéphane Siohan

On December 26, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) announced that it had killed four Ukrainian individuals who had entered the Bryansk region in order to commit sabotage and terrorist acts. 

Their names are Yuri Horovets, Maksym Mikhailov, Taras Karpiouk and Bohdan Liahov, according to information published by the Russian services.

Photos of the remains leaked to Russian media, and according to the FSB, the four men had foreign weapons, including SIG Sauer machine guns, communication devices and four bombs with a total capacity of 40 kilos. 

Sabotage missions in Russia 

They were actually four soldiers from the Ukrainian Armed Forces, whose identity was confirmed on Telegram by Yevhen Karas, a far-right activist, founder of the C14 group, himself a soldier.

Karas, who seems to know the four men, calls them " 

the ghosts of the night

 " of Bryansk and Belgorod, indicating that they are not their first attempt and that they have already carried out several sabotage missions. in Russian territory. 

According to Yevhen Karas, the leader of the group is a member of the Ukrainian nationalist organization "

 Brotherhood 

", a rather dubious group, whose founder has long navigated the orbit of the Ukrainian and Russian secret services.

Still according to Yevhen Karas, photos in support, the four men on a mission would have exploded on a minefield.

►Also listen: 

Grand Reportage - Russia: fragments of a border life

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