Former GRU officer Vladyslav Ammosov seen in a video uploaded April 9, 2023.
Radio Free Europe/YouTube
A former Russian intelligence officer has defected and says he’s setting up a pro-Ukrainian unit.
The “Siberian battalion” will disrupt Russia from within, founder Vladyslav Ammosov said.
Ammosov said he has passed Ukrainian background checks.
A former Russian military intelligence officer has defected to Ukraine, and says he is setting up a battalion to disrupt Russian activities, according to local reports.
Vladislav Ammosov told Radio Free Europe that with his “Siberian battalion” he is “ready to deploy immediately into Russian territory as a part of a sabotage and reconnaissance group and destroy enemies who support Putin’s authorities,” per a translation by The New Voice of Ukraine.
Ammosov, who is from the Yakut ethnic group, added that the unit is to be filled with dissidents from different ethnicities. Ethnic minorities in Russia are treated like second-class citizens, he said, according to Ukrainian outlet Focus. They have also long been reported to be over-represented in Russia’s combat losses.
Focus noted that it’s still unclear exactly how Ammosov’s putative force would take shape.
Oleg Zhdanov, a reserve colonel of the Ukrainian army, told the outlet that Ammosov’s unit could be seen as being similar to the pro-Kremlin Wagner Group private military company, but could sabotage Russia from within, carrying out assassinations, kidnappings and attacks.
Ammosov served in the GRU — the military intelligence wing of Russia’s army — for 15 years before moving to Europe, Radio Free Europe reported.
Originally from the Siberian city of Yakutsk, Ammosov said that he became “an imperialist who fell for propaganda,” and fought on Moscow’s behalf in the second Chechen war, per The New Voice of Ukraine.
There, the outlet reported him as saying, he was taught “to destroy entire countries.”
He said he left the GRU before Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.
Ammosov said he passed Ukrainian security checks, with Radio Free Europe reporting that Ukrainian officials had confirmed his story.
Even so, Ukrainian political analyst Vladimir Fesenko added a note of skepticism, telling Focus that groups like Ammosov’s can be incoherent and focused mainly on media attention rather than being truly effective.
There have been a number of mysterious fires and explosions at sensitive Russian sites since its invasion of Ukraine. None have had a formal explanation, which has led to speculation that they were targeted by Ukrainian commandos or Russian dissidents.
According to Focus, Ammosov’s unit is the fourth such dissident unit to be formed.