Russian soldiers dressed as civilians sighted in occupied Kursk region

Russian troops in civilian clothing have been sighted in Ukrainian occupied areas of the Kursk region amid the ongoing Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) incursion into southwestern Russia, local sources told Novaya Europe on Wednesday.

Video footage purporting to show Russian soldiers dressed as civilians in the embattled Kursk region was published by pro-Kremlin Telegram news channel Readovka on Monday, which if confirmed, would constitute a violation of international humanitarian law, according to which all armed combatants in a conflict are required to wear distinctive insignia.

A serviceman familiar with security forces in the Kursk region said the video footage showed members of volunteer formations, consisting mainly of employees from local private security companies.

Russian military units were also spotted wearing civilian clothes in the Kursk region, Novaya Europe’s source said, among them the Pyatnashka Brigade, part of a private military company contracted to the Russian Defence Ministry that has been fighting in Ukraine since 2014, as well as special operations forces that had previously been deployed in Abkhazia, a disputed area of Georgia.

Another source with knowledge of Russian intelligence said that reconnaissance and assault troops stood the most to gain by dressing as civilians, but that this created greater risks for the civilian population, whom the AFU could mistake for Russian forces.

The Russian Investigative Committee said on Monday that it was investigating “AFU attacks on civilians and civilian objects” in the Kursk region, while Readovka published footage on 8 August showing what it said were civilians coming under AFU fire in the Kursk region town of Sudzha.