MOSCOW, October 29. /TASS/. One of the mercenaries eliminated in Russia’s borderline Bryansk Region was an officer of the 75th Ranger Regiment, or Army Rangers, an elite airborne light infantry combat unit within the US Army Special Operations Command (USASOC), a military expert told TASS.

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told TASS earlier that among the mercenaries who had been neutralized in the Bryansk Region were citizens of the United States, Canada, and Poland.

"The analysis of the identity of the eliminated militants indicates that, first, it is highly likely that they are Western mercenaries. Apart from that, another interesting fact is that one of them was linked with the 75th Ranger Regiment. This is a deep reconnaissance unit specializing mainly in staging acts of sabotage behind enemy lines and destroying military infrastructure facilities and airfields," said Alexander Stepanov, program director of the Academy of Political Sciences, senior researcher at the Institute of Latin America of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

According to the expert, this means that highly-qualified specialists, "even if they are retired NATO vets or so-called vacationers," were deployed to the Bryansk Region. "Thus, this group was well-prepared and had corresponding instructions. As for its objective, most probably, it was to carry out terrorist operations deep in the Bryansk Region, and possibly inside the city itself," Stepanov said.

In his words, the group could have been tasked to take hostages or destroy vital military, energy, and civilian infrastructure facilities. "The range of potential targets is quite wide. This is clear. But the enemy failed to implement these plans. And what matters the most is that they sustained losses and understood that the Russian side is in full control at this section of the state border," he stressed.

"Moreover, there is evidence that the sabotage and reconnaissance group was backed by unmanned aerial vehicles, including FPV drones. This exposed the intricate web of sabotage operations plans, the active use of unmanned aviation capacities and combat loitering munitions during the infiltration operation," the expert added.

Operation details

The expert also drew attention to signs indicating that these mercenaries were probing for potential vulnerabilities to pave the way for sabotage and reconnaissance groups to infiltrate Russia’s territory. "First, signs of reconnoitering the most vulnerable sites in Russian border areas to open new opportunities for sabotage and reconnaissance groups are obvious. Evidently, they tried to do this secretly with certain support. They failed, which speaks, first, about the well-coordinated work of the FSB Border Service, National Guard and defense ministry units, which are deployed to protect the border," Stepanov said, adding that the enemy artillery and multiple launch missile systems that were backing the group, were destroyed. "Again, this demonstrated the high level of coordination" between Russian units, he noted.

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said earlier that four saboteurs had been eliminated while trying to infiltrate the Bryansk Region on October 27. These men, according to the FSB, are presumably foreign mercenaries.