In 2014, the “Little Green Men”—Russian soldiers wearing unmarked uniforms—played a significant role in the Kremlin’s annexation of Crimea. The soldiers were armed with the same weapons as the Russian military, employed much of the same equipment, and were noted for speaking with Russian accents. Many wore masks to conceal their identities.

The Kremlin initially dismissed the allegations that the soldiers were even Russian, and claimed instead that they were “local self-defense groups.” It was only in the late spring of 2014 that Russian president Vladimir Putin acknowledged that the troops in Crimea had been Russia all along—but the world already knew as much.

The Little Green Men, a term coined by the residents in Crimea, were also spotted in the eastern Donbas region, operating alongside separatist forces before Moscow launched its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Since that time the illusion has been dropped, yet NATO officials have expressed concerns that such units could be employed in the Baltic States to attempt to undermine the pro-Western governments.

However, this week, it wasn’t the Little Green Men that were suddenly in the spotlight—it was Russia’s so-called “Space Troops,” which were rushed to help defend the border region of Kursk, which Ukrainian forces invaded earlier this month and as of this week control 1,150 square kilometers (444 square miles) of territory.

The independent investigative Russian news outlet Important Stories reported on the deployment of the Space Troops.

What Exactly Are Space Troops?

The Russian news outlet confirmed that a Motorized Rifle Regiment of the Aerospace Force was among the troops sent to the front, and according to the report, it isn’t exactly elite Special Forces. Rather, it is made up of engineers, mechanics, and other servicemen from a Russian spaceport.

In other words, less Star Wars-style “stormtroopers” with blasters or the Sardaukar, the elite military force from Frank Herbert’s Dune series, and more ground personnel that aren’t trained for frontline combat.

The deployment of the Space Troops to Kursk has caught some Russian propagandists off guard—much like the Kremlin was caught off guard when Kyiv invaded the region, marking the first invasion into Russia since World War II.

“I have no idea why they call themselves motorized riflemen, if there is no sign of any motorized rifles there,” the Fighterbomber Telegram channel posted this week, according to Newsweek. The regiment has been known to “beg other units for anything more serious than a Kalashnikov.”

Similar to the U.S. Space Force?

Though described as Space Troops, and certainly not a frontline combat unit, the regiment could be seen as comparable to the United States Space Force, the sixth and newest branch of the U.S. military—in that the personnel oversees space operations.

Yet, it was just last week that the Department of the Air Force announced that U.S. airmen and Guardians (the term for Space Force uniformed personnel) would resume weapons practice with M4 carbines. It remains unlikely that the Space Force Guardians would be deployed into combat like the Russian Space Troops, but that may just highlight how serious the situation is for the Kremlin in Kursk at the moment.

Author Experience and Expertise: Peter Suciu

Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites with over 3,200 published pieces over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu. You can email the author: [email protected].

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