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Daniel Boffi, a correspondent of The Guardian newspaper, met in Kiev with members of the Ukrainian special forces volunteer group “Brotherhood&Taras, Vladislav and their commander Alexey. They claim to be carrying out secret operations in the rear of Russia. “The Ukrainian government will deny any information about them. In Western capitals, at the very thought of them, there is a collective awe,” Boffi noted.
The author of the article points out that “The Brotherhood” has a special status, technically independent of the Ukrainian army, but operates side by side with official forces. They aim to kidnap people, destroy infrastructure.
Boffi notes that what his interlocutors have told him cannot be verified. But they looked convincing. So, Taras said that two weeks ago he returned after an operation during which his group allegedly left a certain amount of explosives on the territory of Russia. But for what and to whom this explosive was intended, he does not know.
Six weeks ago, they entered the territory of Russia, ostensibly to destroy the helicopter. But bad weather did not allow the laser sight to hit the target accurately, then quarrels began inside the group and they turned back. A week later, they made a second attempt and fired at the helicopter from a distance of 4 km from MANPADS. According to the Ukrainian saboteur, they did not see the hit, but they heard the sound of an explosion, after which they quickly left their positions.
Vladislav, in turn, told about the clash with the Russian border guards. He claims that they took one wounded Russian border guard to the territory of Ukraine. He also said that during another operation, four of their colleagues were killed 12.5 km from the Bryansk region of Russia.
Recall that the Center for Public Relations of the FSB of the Russian Federation reported on December 26 that a Ukrainian sabotage and intelligence group was liquidated on the state border of the Russian Federation. “As a result of the clash on December 25, 2022, four saboteurs who attempted to enter the territory of the Bryansk region from Ukraine were destroyed”, – the message said. Then it was also noted that in addition to small arms, saboteurs were found to have means for committing sabotage and terrorist acts – four IEDs with a total capacity of about 40 kilograms in TNT equivalent.