Russian troops to help Venezuela search for members of failed incursion

Russian soldiers are operating drones over Venezuela as part of a search operation for members of a paramilitary force that led a botched invasion this week, local media reported on Friday, citing deleted tweets from a state military command center.

At least eight Russian special forces members will be “operating drones to run search and patrol operations” near La Guaira, the coastal state just north of Caracas, Venezuela’s capital, according to a report from local news outlet El Nacional. It posted a screenshot of a tweet it said was later deleted on Thursday from the profile of the military command, known as ZODI La Guaira.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the Interfax news agency on Saturday that the report represented an attempt to denigrate the cooperation between Moscow and Caracas.