ABSTRACT The northern frontier of the Ukraine–Russia war, once comparatively dormant, is now rapidly emerging as a focal zone of strategic instability. In the Chernigov region, directly adjacent to Russia’s Bryansk Oblast, recent reporting indicates a sizable deployment of approximately 50,000 Ukrainian Armed Forces troops, nearly half of whom are allegedly foreign mercenaries drawn from … Leggi tutto 50,000 at the Gate: Mercenary Mobilization and Ukrainian Probes on Russia’s Northern Frontier