{"id":49498,"date":"2026-06-09T05:02:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T03:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/danwatch.dk\/they-have-fought-in-ukraine-and-syria-now-they-are-in-the-baltic-sea\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T14:30:41","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T12:30:41","slug":"they-have-fought-in-ukraine-and-syria-now-they-are-in-the-baltic-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/danwatch.dk\/en\/they-have-fought-in-ukraine-and-syria-now-they-are-in-the-baltic-sea\/","title":{"rendered":"They have fought in Ukraine and Syria \u2013 now they are in the Baltic Sea"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A network of 83 Russian men is sailing secretly in the Baltic Sea.<\/p>\n\n

They have backgrounds in the army, the intelligence services, and state and private security services.<\/p>\n\n

Several of them have fought in Syria, Ukraine and Mali for, among others, the Wagner Group and other Russian private military organisations. <\/p>\n\n

Together with international media outlets, Danwatch has reviewed more than 2,000 crew lists from the ships and made covert recordings of four soldiers. We can therefore now shed light on the Russian soldiers. <\/p>\n\n

We can report that 18 of them have fought for the Wagner Group, and that several still share material closely linked to the notorious military group. <\/p>\n\n

Five others are linked to the private military group Moran Security, and four work for Redut, which is de facto controlled by Russia\u2019s intelligence services.<\/p>\n\n

In addition, 18 people have fought in Russia\u2019s armed forces, whilst the rest have backgrounds in Russia\u2019s state or private security services. <\/p>\n\n

The 83 Russians have sailed secretly through Denmark on 65 different ships over a period of 10 months. In total, they have passed through Danish waters 140 times. <\/p>\n\n

Almost all of these voyages took place after May 2025. <\/p>\n\n

\n

About the investigation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  • Shadow Fleet Mercenaries <\/em>is an international collaboration several European countries.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • The media outlets have jointly reviewed more than 2,000 crew lists and identified Russian mercenaries on tankers who officially have no role there. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • The media outlets have had to process the information themselves for their stories, but have shared knowledge with one another.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Dossier Center, an exiled Russian media outlet owned by Putin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky, secured access to the central data.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Behind the investigation are Danwatch, Dossier Center, Follow The Money, The Times, S\u00fcddeutsche Zeitung, NDR, Delfi, OCCRP, SourceMaterial, Pointer, VRT NWS, Expressen and De Tijd.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

    The youngest is 29 and the oldest is 60. Their average age is 46. <\/p>\n\n

    With the help of leaked personal data and thorough analysis of their social media, we can see that a number of the soldiers have spent the past many years at war in several places around the world.<\/p>\n\n

    Travel records show that 26 of the 83 Russians have been deployed to Syria in recent years, whilst 13 of them have been at war in Ukraine. In addition, 22 of them have flown on military aircraft to secret destinations outside Russia. <\/p>\n\n

    Here, Danwatch provides a unique insight into some of Putin\u2019s mercenaries sailing through Denmark. <\/p>\n\n

    War for more than a decade <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n

    On 11 September 2025, the ship Walrus was positioned a short distance off the Russian port city of Ust-Luga, located at the Russian end of the Gulf of Finland. <\/p>\n\n

    Here, two Russian soldiers quietly boarded the vessel. Presumably completely unexpected for the crew, apart from the captain, who had only been informed shortly beforehand. <\/p>\n\n

    A few days later, the ship set course for the Baltic Sea and Denmark with both oil and two secret soldiers on board. <\/p>\n\n

    One of them is this man named Ruslan. <\/p>\n\n

    \"Ruslan\"<\/figure>\n\n

    With a Russian AK rifle slung across his bare chest, the soldier Ruslan stands beneath a concrete bridge in the eastern Ukrainian town of Stanytsia in the Luhansk region.<\/p>\n\n

    \u201cNO TO FASCISM!!!\u201d is painted on the concrete foundation beneath him, and right next to it is written \u201cKILL THE UKRAINIANS\u201d. <\/p>\n\n

    \"Image\"<\/figure>\n\n

    The image was shared on Ruslan\u2019s own profile on the Russian social media platform Vkontakte in 2022, but the writing on the concrete casting says 2014, when the first hostilities in eastern Ukraine began. <\/p>\n\n

    A review of the soldier Ruslan\u2019s social media, payslips, work and travel records paints a picture of a man who has been at war for nearly a decade. <\/p>\n\n

    In 2016, he shared this photo, in which he poses in front of a civilian car with Ukrainian number plates.<\/p>\n\n

    \"Ruslan\"<\/figure>\n\n

    It began in 2014 in the town of Stanytsia in eastern Ukraine, and it ended on a dark fleet tanker.<\/p>\n\n

    Incidentally, in 2016 he was convicted of fraud. Two years later, he was punished for committing vandalism. <\/p>\n\n

    An analysis of leaked personal data about Ruslan shows that he was in fact sentenced to prison. Nevertheless, leaked travel data from Russia\u2019s military shows that he was at war again during the period when he was supposed to be behind bars. <\/p>\n\n

    \"01\"<\/figure>\n\n

    In both 2015 and 2019, Ruslan was flown to eastern Ukraine by the Russian Air Force. Most recently, in 2023, he was flown to Ukraine again, this time officially as a soldier in Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion. <\/p>\n\n

    \"03\"<\/figure>\n\n

    That same year, he was awarded the Order of Courage, one of the highest honours a Russian soldier can receive.<\/p>\n