New Details on the Role of Western Contractors in Kursk Assault: Polish and French Spoken Widely
Eastern Europe and Central Asia , Battlefield
Since the initiation of a Ukrainian-led assault on the Russian Kursk region on August 6, which has seen an estimated 15,000 personnel penetrate unprecedentedly deep into Russian territory, a growing number of details have emerged regarding the roles of personnel from NATO member states in supporting the operation. Western advisors, logisticians, combatants, and other personnel operating a range of complex newly delivered hardware have played a central and growing role in the war effort since early 2022, ranging from British Royal Marines deployed for frontline combat operations from April 2022 at the latest, to SAS advisors who have reportedly played a significant role in supporting armoured offensives against Russian positions. With many of Ukraine’s most elite combat units and much of its top end military equipment having been committed to the assault on Kursk, the deployment of Western personnel to support the assault, likely including both contractors and active servicemembers, has been in line with broader trends seen throughout the war.
The Forward Observations Group American military organisation has notably confirmed the deployment of its personnel in Kursk, and posted their pictures in the region, which has been confirmed by geolocation data. The Forward Observations Group, the status of which remains highly opaque, has been involved in operations in the Ukrainian theatre for well over two years, although a portion of its manpower was reportedly diverted to Israel to support operations in the Gaza Strip from late 2023. Supplementing this photographic evidence, Ukrainian personnel involved in the Kursk operation have themselves attested to the presence of personnel from NATO member states in the offensive. A notable example widely cited by Russian sources was a serviceman from the 80th Airborne Assault Brigade, Ruslan Poltoratsky, who stated: "When we crossed the border with Russia, at first I thought there was some line noise. But then I distinguished what they were saying - they were speaking English, Polish, maybe even French. I did not understand anything, I said into the walkie-talkie - 'repeat, repeat,' hearing some gibberish.” "When they had already taken positions [in the Kursk Region], they also went on the air with their superiors, with ours as well, and I also heard them saying something in English and in some other language. Something about houses, chaos," he added.
Russian military sources, and civilians in areas held by Ukrainian and allied forces have made a number of separate reports on the operations of Western personnel in Kursk. Major General Apty Alaudinov, deputy chief of the Russian Armed Forces’ Main Military-Political Department and commander of the Akhmat Special Forces commando unit, has stated that a large number of French and Polish military contractors were encountered during operations. Russian media outlets have consistently referred to Western contractors and volunteers in Ukraine as “mercenaries,” although this pejorative term has not been used to describe Russia’s own contractors - most notably the Wagner Group. Villagers in Kursk have similarly attested to the presence of French and Polish speaking personnel.
The operations of Western personnel in the Ukrainian theatre have been increasingly widely reported by both Russian and Western sources. Head of the U.S. Special Operations Command General Bryan Fenton, for example, in May stated that the Pentagon had been learning about the ongoing war “mostly through the eyes of our UK special operations partners,” who he stated had been testing new approaches to modern warfare in the theatre. He noted as an example British special operations units’ observing and advising on the use of drones and “the way a ship in the Black Sea navigates.” Five months prior in December 2023 Polish journalist Zbigniew Parafianowicz revealed that he had been provided details by Polish officials on the operations of British forces “Uniformed. With weapons” in the theatre, and played important roles in tracking the positions of Russian artillery.
Parafianowicz further revealed that Polish special forces had been in the theatre from the war’s very first stages. Regarding efforts by Western militaries to provide deniability for their operations, a Polish officer informed him: “we worked out a formula for our presence in Ukraine … we were simply sent on paid leave. Politicians pretended not to see this.” Further details were subsequently provided in February 2024, when German Chancellor Olaf Scholtz confirmed that British special forces in Ukraine were providing vital support to facilitating launches of Storm Shadow cruise missiles against Russian targets. Russian forces have notably singled out Western forces in Ukraine for targeting, a notable example being January 16 missile strike son the headquarters of predominantly French European foreign fighters causing at least 80 casualties, 60 or more of which were killed. Russian state media reported that these personnel were “highly trained specialists who work on specific weapons systems too complex for the average Ukrainian conscripts,” which “put some of the most lethal and long-range weapons in the Ukrainian arsenal out of service until more specialists are found” to replace them.
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