Ukrainian military operates in western Libya under a Western-approved secret agreement and last month used the territory of the North African country to attack a Russian tanker in the Mediterranean Sea, two Libyan officials reported on Tuesday, according to LETA citing AP.
The Russian-flagged tanker "Arctic Metagaz," carrying 61,000 tons of liquefied natural gas, sustained significant damage in early March, reportedly due to a marine drone strike near Maltese waters.
Ukrainian military personnel, most of whom are drone specialists, primarily operate from an airbase in the coastal city of Misrata, as well as from other military sites in the capital Tripoli and the coastal city of Zawiya, sources who wished to remain anonymous told the Associated Press.
One official stated that the strike on the tanker on March 3 was carried out by Ukrainian military personnel stationed at a military facility in Tripoli.
According to sources, in recent months, Ukrainian military forces have been deployed in western Libya as part of a "secret agreement" between Kyiv and the government of Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibeh, based in Tripoli.
The presence of Ukrainian forces in western Libya is part of NATO's efforts to ensure that this territory is "not accessible to Russia," said Jalel Harchaoui, an analyst at the UK’s Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies regarding Libya.
"It is quite likely that with the knowledge and approval of NATO countries — primarily the U.S., but also the UK and Turkey — several small groups of Ukrainian military are currently in the Tripoli area," the analyst noted.
Since 2011, when dictator Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown during a NATO-backed uprising, chaos has persisted in Libya. Two competing governments and several armed groups claim control over the country.
Leave a comment