Mercenaries of the Russian private military company BEARS, which is associated with the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, are leaving the African country of Burkina Faso due to the offensive of the Ukrainian army in the Kursk region.
The French newspaper Le Monde writes about it.
In May, nearly a hundred mercenaries arrived in Burkina Fasoʼs capital, Ouagadougou, presumably to support the local military junta, including its leader Ibrahim Traoré. Now they are leaving there to take part in the defense of the Kursk region.
The commander of the Russian mercenaries Viktor Yermolaev, with the call sign "Jedi" in a comment to Le Monde, confirmed the fact of the departure of his unit. He stated: "When the enemy comes to Russian territory, all Russian soldiers forget about internal problems and unite against the common enemy."
On August 27, a message appeared in the unitʼs Telegram channel that "due to recent events, the brigade is returning to Crimea," where the unit is based.
An unnamed Western source told Le Monde that the BEARSʼ departure from Burkina Faso could also be linked to problems with the payment of some mercenaries.
"This is complete nonsense. We are leaving because the enemy [the Ukrainian army] has entered Russia. We will return to Africa as soon as we finish our work at home," Yermolaev said.
Le Monde notes that the BEARS deny communication with the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. However, there are data that some heads of the Russian Ministry of Defense were in contact with mercenaries. Thus, on April 5, 2023, the Deputy Minister of Defense of Russia Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, who, according to the newspaper, oversees the entire military presence of the Kremlin in Africa, personally visited their base camp "Perevalne" to convey his support to the BEARS.
The Kursk operation
For the first time, it became known about the offensive of the Defense Forces in the Kursk region of the Russian Federation on August 6 — then Russian telegram channels and "military corps" wrote about it.
For the first time, Ukraine officially confirmed the operation only on August 12. As of August 27, 1 294 km² and 100 settlements of this region are under the control of Ukraine, and 594 occupiers were captured by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
The head of the Armed Forces Oleksandr Syrskyi informed that Russia had transferred almost 30 000 soldiers to the territory of the Kursk region.
For self-defense, the Ukrainian military formed a buffer zone on the territory of the Kursk region. On August 15, Ukraine created the first military command post there.