in the heart of the special units of the “saboteurs” attacking Russian tanks

As they counted on a quick victory, the Russian forces encountered fierce – and unexpected – resistance from the Ukrainians, a month after the launch of the offensive. This slower than expected progress is due, in particular, to very specific battalions: units dedicated to sabotage.

When he speaks, his black beret screwed on his head, Yuri keeps an automatic rifle casing in his hand. He is the commander of the Navy Special Forces Battalion. Their flag is red and black, one of their emblems is a sword, and their motto is: “Where we are is victory“.

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The mission of this battalion, explains Yuri, with a massive physique, is to go behind the Russian lines to attack them by surprise: “Before attacking a column, we make an observation by drone. At the head of the convoy, you have tanks, in the back, armored vehicles for the troops. And in the middle the truck with diesel, weapons and food. First we destroy the tanks and armor, then we take the rest. We managed to take a lot of vehicles and tanks which we then use to fight.”he describes, watching a video on his cell phone.

For their progress, the soldiers sometimes advance in small groups of about ten people. They are supported by the population, which sometimes makes the difference: “The civilians tell us where the Russian columns are, tell us about their movements, tell us where the tanks are hidden.” explains Yuri.

We also receive a lot of intelligence from allied countries

In the basement of the brigade, we see the new weapons that these soldiers received. There are rocket launchers, heavy machine guns, sniper rifles, delivered by Germany and the United States.

Game-changing support for the number 2 of the battalion: “Ukraine was not prepared for this war, and we couldn’t produce weapons quickly. Before that, we were using weapons that date back to Soviet times.”

In the courtyard of the battalion, in the background, these soldiers keep their trophies: they brought back two armored vehicles and two Russian trucks, on which they painted the blue and yellow flag of Ukraine.