Atesh: the Ukrainian partisans taking on Russia

Its operating strategy could come straight out of a Second World War handbook, using locals' intimate knowledge of their land and the element of surprise to harass occupying forces. But this isn't the French Resistance fighting back against the Nazis in the 1940s; it's a Ukrainian guerrilla group called Atesh which claims to be having great success disrupting Russian military activities.

In the ever-complex landscape of the Ukraine-Russia war, Atesh has emerged as a growing force. It was formed by ethnic Ukrainian, Russian and Crimean Tatar partisans in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory of Crimea in summer 2022, following the invasion that February. As well as choosing the Crimean Tatar word for "fire" for their name, the group issued a statement on the Telegram social media app that declared its aims were "to fight for the Ukrainian state" in any way possible. That included acting as double agents within the Russian military.

"We joined the ranks of the Russian Armed Forces and acted to destroy it from within," one activist told Ukrainian news site Svidomi.

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'Step-by-step' guide to sabotage

Operating in the shadows, Atesh's resistance fighters – local people motivated "partly by hatred of the Kremlin, partly by offers of cash from Ukrainian handlers", according to The Times – have created an underground resistance movement that has forced Russian troops on the back foot.

Successes are said to include damaging railway lines used to transport military supplies, assassinating soldiers and providing valuable information to Ukrainian intelligence, as well as ongoing strikes on Russia's Black Sea Fleet and military bases in the region. 

Most recently, it claims to have infiltrated defence industry plants in Russia and Belarus and given employees "step-by-step actions" on acts of sabotage, said Ukrainian news website RBC-Ukraine. Tactics include taking longer toilet breaks, working slower than normal and repeatedly asking for clarification of tasks from management. 

Atash's campaign is helped by the secrecy necessary for a partisan group to function, which, wrote journalist David Kirichenko in The Kyiv Independent, creates a "sense of paranoia" among the Russians. Added to that are Atesh's own claims that 4,000 Russian soldiers have enrolled in an online course on how to destroy their own equipment in order to "survive the war". 

Villages turned 'inside out' 

Their activities have led to them being "hunted ruthlessly" by the FSB, Russia's security and counterintelligence service, said The Times, and agents had "turned whole villages inside out in their search for the partisans". Kirichenko reported that Russia was "resorting" to mass detentions and violence against anyone deemed "suspicious", as well as enforcing measures such as the banning of recreational activities on the coast and disrupting internet services during troop movements.  

In Russia itself, however, military bloggers have denied there is any threat and claimed Atesh is nothing more than an "online invention of Ukrainian intelligence, designed to overstate levels of resistance", said the BBC.

Despite these extensive measures, Atesh has proven resilient, continuing to carry out operations and evade Russian efforts to neutralise it. 

"The resistance movement within the occupied peninsula will only amplify," added Kirichenko. "Soon, like the rest of Ukraine, Crimea will be a territory of freedom once again".