The chilling meaning behind Russia's 'little green men' explained

Russia’s ‘little green men’ have been unmasked, with their decades-long history being the focus of war tactics used in Ukraine.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe recently held a secret sit-down with Aleksandr Bortnikov, chief of Russia's domestic intelligence agency, the FSB.

There, according to The New York Times, he allegedly sat the official down and told him how the war would go for Moscow, stating it wasn’t looking great. Apparently, this was to push the Russians toward striking a deal before things get worse.

In May, Moscow's annual Victory Day parade on Red Square was a time used to celebrate the defeat of Nazi Germany in the Second World War. However, what was noticeable was that in 20 years, the parade saw its first absence of tanks, missiles, and heavily armed guards.

At the time, Russian leader Vladimir Putin was there, alongside other high-profile members.

It appeared that Ukrainian attacks were no longer something to fear after the war first began over a decade ago in 2014, when Ukraine’s Crimea was taken by Russia.

Vladimir Putin called them 'self-defense' groups (Photo by RONNY ROMAN ROZENBERG / AFP via Getty Images)

There, armed men - who were dubbed 'little green men’ by Ukrainian journalists - appeared in Crimea and eastern Ukraine.

These people were a mystery at first, as they wore Russian-style combat uniforms with Russian weapons, spoke Russian, but didn’t wear any identifying insignia.

One day they weren’t there, and the next they manned roadblocks and seized strategic points on the Crimean peninsula at the end of February 2014.

On March 4, Putin denied that they were Russian, and branded the groups ‘local self-defense units’, the BBC reports.

Russian journalists also typically reported on the men by using the word ‘polite’, with news site Nezavisimaya Gazeta, having noted the ‘polite, armed men are in charge of Crimea now’.

But three weeks later, on March 28, Putin went on to congratulate Russian officers in the Kremlin for their conduct of the Crimean operation, and the Russian Defense Ministry issued a victory medal for the ‘return of Crimea.’

Two months later on May 18, Putin confirmed the troops in Crimea were Russian, and not ‘volunteers’ or ‘self-defence groups’ like state ran media said in Russia.

Russia's potential to harm NATO has been questioned (Photo by Dursun Aydemir/Anadolu via Getty Images)

The reveal that the men were Russian soldiers wasn't a shock to Ukraine, whose reporters had been calling them 'militant' and accusing them of terrorism from the start.

But its potential significance in 2026 is making an appearance.

The Telegraph published an Op Ed on August 27 that stated if Russia were to attack NATO, they could simply revert back to the 'little green men' tactic and take territories like they did with Crimea.

Justin Bronk, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute think tank, told the outlet that by utilizing the covert team, Moscow could 'potentially seize quite a small amount of territory on the border'.

He said it could be a test to see how willing NATO was to trigger Article Five, which requires all members of the agreement to come to the aid of the country that is under attack.

But you'd hope countries would be able to stop a group of little green men before they hit the border.