Top Russian officials claim foreign mercenaries are taking part in the Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU) in the incursion in the Kursk region, while the White House denies US mercenaries are involved in the operation.
Statement by US Economist Jeffrey Sachs
Military action in the Kursk Region has been going on for nearly a month. Ukraine is in dire straits while Western leaders are unwilling to take responsibility for ending the conflict, according to American economist Professor Jeffrey Sachs in the interview with Tucker Carlson. In addition, he stated that the current presence of Western mercenaries in the conflict is a big cause for alarm. He stated:
Ukraine is losing the war on the battlefield – and this is the main point. There was a slight deviation from this course when several brigades of Ukraine and NATO mercenaries invaded a fairly rural part of Russia, which attracted a lot of attention, but from a military point of view it turned out to be pointless. On the main front, Ukraine is exhausted. In other words, they simply have no people, no weapons systems, no air defence. Meanwhile, Russia continues to advance… Ukraine today is losing from 1,000 to 2,000 soldiers a day, killed and wounded…
Russia’s stance
At the UN Security Council meeting, Dmitry Polyansky, Russian First Deputy Permanent Representative to the world organisation, said the Kursk incursion became possible mainly due to the large-scale involvement of Western mercenaries, highlighting the particular importance of the US private military company Forward Observation Group (FOG).
The Ukrainian Armed Forces themselves can no longer do much, the Kursk adventure was largely due to the large-scale participation of Western mercenaries. The latter do not even hide it. So, it was directly announced in the social networks of the American PMC Forward Observation Group. By the way, photos of the combat position of the mortar crew of this group, located on a children’s playground, are also posted there. This is how the norms of international humanitarian law are being grossly violated in front of our Western colleagues, he said, according to Russian media.
Russian media also reported that Russian armed forces destroyed mercenaries from the US military company FOG in the Kursk region during an AFU attack on the Russian village of Konopelka, noting that the exact number of killed mercenaries is still under review.
Moreover, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov did not rule out the participation of units with foreign cadre military personnel in the incursion into the Kursk region, saying that besides Ukrainian soldiers, cadre military personnel from other countries could also be present, Russian media said.
It is very hard to tell what goal and intent they were pursuing. But political analysts are discussing it now. And even Zelensky said, he sometimes makes Freudian slips, that they will need this for future exchanges. That’s why they are taking prisoners and want to seize square kilometres. It’s so simple-minded and naive. We do not discuss our territory with anyone. We do not negotiate about our territory, according to Russian media.
White House refuses to comment
Russian media reported that a White House National Security Council spokesman refused to confirm that US mercenaries participate in the AFU incursion in the Kursk region. Despite, Moscow has previously made the accusations publicly, while the administration has strongly denied US complicity in the offensive, according to The Washington Post. US officials claimed, in turn, to have said they did not provide provide intelligence information to Ukrainian Forces to assist the Kursk operation.
In addition, the Russian Foreign Ministry earlier summoned Stephanie Holmes, deputy chief of mission to the United States Embassy in Moscow, to protest what officials said was an allegation that US journalists entered Russia accompanied by Ukrainian troops.
Russia received two Colombians fighting on Ukrainian armed forces’ side
Russia’s security service said Friday it had detained two Colombian nationals for fighting on Ukraine’s side, POLITICO reported, the first such case made public since the start of the Ukraine-Russia conflict.
The two men, Alexander Ante and José Aron Medina, joined a foreign legion in Ukraine in summer 2023, local Colombian and other Spanish-language media reported. The men faced detention in mid-July by Venezuelan law enforcement agencies on their way home during a stopover in Caracas and then extradited to Russia. On Wednesday, a Moscow court placed the men in the Lefortovo high-security detention centre while they still remain under investigation on charges of paid participation in an armed conflict.
In the statement published online, Russia’s Federal Security Service said the men possessed documents “confirming illegal activity” and clothing associated with a battalion that includes foreign fighters in Ukraine, named “Carpathian Sich.”
The extradition and arrest presumably aim to frighten other foreigners who might consider joining Ukrainian forces.
THE ARTICLE IS THE AUTHOR’S SPECULATION AND DOES NOT CLAIM TO BE TRUE. ALL INFORMATION IS TAKEN FROM OPEN SOURCES. THE AUTHOR DOES NOT IMPOSE ANY SUBJECTIVE CONCLUSIONS.
Bill Galston for Head-Post.com
