81st Special Forces Brigade "Bears" (), also mentioned by the media as PMC "Bear", () is a Russian elite volunteer military formation highly trained and with combat capabilities similar to the Spetsnaz.
It was created in 2023 to participate in the Russian invasion of Ukraine and support pro-Russian regimes in African countries. It is part of the private military company (PMC) "Redut".
History The first announcements about the creation of a volunteer battalion called "Bears" appeared on 17 March 2023. As in other units of "Redut", recruits were offered a six-month contract with a monthly salary of 220 thousand rubles. The training base of the unit is located near the military town in the village of Perevalne in Crimea, at the former training ground of the coastal defense forces of the Ukrainian Navy. In early April, the battalion's training ground was visited by the head of the Republic of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, and the Deputy Minister of Defense of Russia, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov. The number of fighters at this stage was 400. On May 30, the volunteer battalion, which never managed to take part in combat operations, was named the 81st Special Forces Brigade "Bears".
As of October 2023, the battalion of the 81st brigade was in the Kherson region to respond promptly to raids by Ukrainian Armed Forces units across the Dnieper on the front line between Oleshky and Novaya Kakhovka. The brigade is part of the BEAR expeditionary corps, established to conduct operations on the African continent. A hundred brigade fighters arrived in Burkina Faso in May 2024. In late August, the corps was withdrawn from Burkina Faso and sent to the Kursk Oblast to counter the Ukrainian army's offensive.
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