Russian troops recruited into the ranks of Ukrainian partisan units are killing their own soldiers in sabotage operations in exchange for cash or the opportunity to live abroad, Kyiv Post has been told.
In the latest incident, a Russian soldier allegedly placed 10 kilograms of explosives between two trucks at a military base in the occupied city of Henichesk, in Kherson region at the border with the Crimean Peninsula.
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According to ATESH, the partisan movement of Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars, they orchestrated the operation in which an improvised explosive device was detonated as troops boarded the vehicles.
“Result: two trucks with personnel were destroyed,” the group said in a post on Telegram.
In exclusive comments to Kyiv Post, an ATESH spokesperson said Russian soldiers are increasingly cooperating with Ukrainian partisans – although not necessarily for ideological reasons.
“The Russians, in turn, agree to cooperate for material benefits and the possibility of leaving for Ukraine and the EU,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson also said the operation took more than a month to plan and was deliberately timed at 8 a.m. on Friday, when “the Russian military were tired and not as attentive as they could be.”
The Russian soldier gathered information about the location of the trucks and troops and with the help of two partisans “he hid a 10-kg 'gift' there.”
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“The human factor also worked – this place has long been used by the invaders, so they did not expect danger so far from the front,” the spokesperson said.
Currently, the number of dead has not been established but ATESH claimed most of the two truckloads of soldiers died on the spot and four are in hospital in serious condition.
The Russian agent involved “successfully left Henichesk” and “decisions are being made on their transfer to the territory controlled by Ukraine,” the spokesperson said.
ATESH also said Russia’s forced mobilization of locals in occupied territory is backfiring on Russian forces.
“Among the Russians mobilized there are not only Russians but also Ukrainians,” the spokesperson said.
“The peculiarity of our movement is that we recruited a lot of people during the general mobilization in September last year.”
“Therefore, we have many of our people in the Russian army.”
While Kyiv Post has not been able to independently verify the claims made by ATESH, they also claimed another huge success involving a Russian recruit.
A Russian serviceman provided Ukraine with details used to plan the devastating missile attack on Moscow’s Black Sea Fleet Sept. 13, they claimed at the time.
In exclusive comments to Kyiv Post, ATESH outlined some of the details of the operation.
“We managed to attract one of the military members of the Russian Black Sea Fleet,” the spokesman said.
“He got up-to-date information about the placement and probable combat missions of the Rostov-on-Don submarine.”
A series of explosions rocked the Sevastopol Shipyard in Russian-occupied Crimea in the early hours of Sept. 13 severely damaging the Rostov-on-Don submarine and the large landing ship, the Minsk.
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