Among the mercenaries liquidated in the Bryansk region there are Americans, Poles and Canadians, the spokesperson of the foreign ministry told RIA Novosti Ministry of Russia Maria Zakharova, citing law enforcement agencies.
Zakharova called these data preliminary, noting that they will be supplemented.
An attempt by a sabotage group to break through the border was thwarted in the Bryansk region yesterday. Four fighters were killed and the rest of the group came under artillery fire, Russian authorities said.
The slain saboteurs were found with foreign weapons, equipment and means of communication, as well as personal belongings pointing to their Western origin. Among the items are a Canadian flag and a prayer book in Polish.
A tattoo of the 2nd Battalion of the 75th Ranger Regiment of the Parachute Reconnaissance Regiment of the US Army Special Forces was discovered on the body of one of the liquidated.
According to official sources, this regiment is an elite special forces unit used for reconnaissance, sabotage behind enemy lines, the capture, capture or destruction of strategically important objects, as well as the capture or liquidation of high-ranking officials. One of the regiment's battalions is always on high alert and can be sent on a mission to any part of the world within 18 hours.
Parts of the regiment participated in the Vietnam War in the late 1960s.
Zakharova was responding to Matthew Miller of the US State Department, who earlier said there would be consequences for Georgia over alleged election irregularities and if Tbilisi continued on its current course.
„Democracy, sir, we have arrived. Next station - neo-colonialism," Zakharova wrote on her Telegram channel.
Zakharova also commented on the statement of the representative of the German Foreign Ministry, Sebastian Fischer, that the plane with Foreign Minister Analena Berbock landed in the wrong place in Malaysia and no one welcomed Berlin's first diplomat.
„And so, thanks to a misunderstanding that caused German Foreign Minister Analena Berbock's plane to park in the wrong place and no one met her, the world learned that the German Foreign Minister was flying to Malaysia, not China or India“, Zakharova wrote in her channel in Telegram.