Ukrainian forces capture Egyptian fighting for Russia

The 28th Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces captured Russia’s Egyptian mercenary during combat operations near Kurdiumivka, Donetsk Oblast, Militarnyi reports. The Brigade published a video on 26 December, showing the battle and the capture of the man in the Russian military uniform but did not specify the exact day of the engagement.

Facing manpower shortages from war casualties in Ukraine, Russia has been recruiting hundreds of mercenaries from economically struggling Asian and African nations, often misleading them with promises of non-combat roles.

According to the 28th Mechanized Brigade’s press service, Russian assault troops used fog cover to approach the positions of the brigade’s 2nd Mechanized Battalion, defending the western outskirts of Kurdiumivka. Ukrainian infantry met them with devastating fire at close range.

The Brigade says the Russians have returned to their tactic of using larger infantry groups for frontal assaults, reverting from repeated infiltration attempts by very small groups of soldiers. The tactics of the so-called “meat-wave” assaults were introduced early in the full-scale invasion by Russia’s Wagner Group at Luhansk’s Popasna, and has been widely used by the Russians all across the front.

“The daily assaults by the occupiers on the Toretsk direction increasingly resemble battles with Wagnerites. Failing to break through with small groups, the enemy has started increasing the number of attackers to 20. However, the only thing that has changed is the number of losses, and the recent assault is a vivid example of this,” the 28th Brigade wrote.

The defenders quickly eliminated part of the attackers, with one Ukrainian fighter eliminating three attackers with firearms and grenades in close combat, holding the position until Ukrainian strike drones arrived.

The remainder “of the assault group began to flee, hide, and pretend to be neutralized. However, each one was hunted down by the pilots of the Unmanned Systems Battalion and Kurt&Company.” Drone footage shows seven enemy fighters eliminated by FPV drones and drone-dropped munitions, Militarnyi notes.

Egyptian POW

Only one member of the assault group surrendered, who reportedly turned out to be a Egyptian mercenary, who couldn’t speak Russian, “so the infantry had to explain everything using gestures,” the report noted.  The report did not clarify how he joined the assault group or whether the group was composed entirely of foreigners.

The previous publicly known Egyptian POW, a naturalized Russian citizen, was captured in early November. Mobilized shortly after obtaining Russian citizenship, the student, who had moved to Russia to study IT, was deployed near Kurakhove following his conscription.

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