Pictures surfaced on social media allegedly showing Russian armed personnel in Canaima, Bolivar state. In a set of images shared on Twitter by a journalist named Mariana Reyes, a group of several Russian soldiers can be seen congregating around a Venezuelan air force military plane. In her tweet, Reyes claimed that the men in the images are Russian, and that they arrived in Canaima on Tuesday.
Below, Reyes’ tweet:
CONFIRMED
A contingent of approximately 40 Russian military personnel arrived in Canaima on Tuesday. They landed at the airstrip that serves as the airport for the [Canaima] national park. Residents claim that the Russians came in this Shaanxi Y-8 [airplane] and that some of them were dressed in [Venezuelan army] uniforms.
A video shared by a lawyer named Olnar Ortiz Bare showed the soldiers disembarking from the aircraft:
Its not clear from the images that the soldiers are Russian, or whether they belong to a regular army unit or a private military contractor.
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