Russia’s African Corps expanding, not withdrawing – Budanov

Kyrylo Budanov, Head of Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR), said this in an interview with Ukrinform.

"Look at what’s happening, many say: Russia is encroaching on Africa, etc. They’ve been trying to achieve their strategic goal – to cut Africa west to east, or east to west, whatever you want to call it. To simply cut it so that everything moving there would have to go through them one way or another. To say that they are seeing no success wouldn’t be true. Indeed, they are being confronted there, in several countries their plans have been completely destroyed, but they keep trying. The African Corps hasn’t completely ceased its operations, it’s only been expanding. They were pushed out of Syria – but they are now settling in Libya. They proceed systemically. They might have some problems in Latin America, they shift toward Central Asia trying to do things there, even in Myanmar there are Russians, precisely their military," Budanov stated.

As reported earlier, in December, Syrian opposition forces announced the capture of Damascus and the escape of President Bashar al-Assad. Following this, Budanov hinted that Ukrainian intelligence may have played a role in the events leading to Assad’s downfall.