The Crimean peninsula is restless. The pro-Russian occupation authorities are increasingly reporting explosions and attacks by the Ukrainian army. Meanwhile, sources inside Kyiv's intelligence services are promising that Ukrainian troops will enter Crimea before the end of the year.

The head of the occupation administration of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, insists that there is no panic, yet is actively building fortifications and planning for the possibility that the war arrives on the territory. This now includes the creation of private armies, which appear inspired to some degree by the Wagner Group, the Russian mercenary outfit now involved in combat in Ukraine.

Aksyonov has gathered two volunteer battalions, Tavrida and Livadia, which are currently located in the neighboring regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

Russian propagandists have already dubbed the combat wing, Aksyonovites, closely associated with Russian Cossacks and security structures that participated in the peninsula's annexation in 2014.

The Tavrida battalion operates under the leadership of Anton Sirotkin, a Cossack military leader and member of the Vladimir Putin's United Russia Party.

Another top Tavrida leader, Vyacheslav Tokmakov, explained on Russian television that at the beginning of the Russian full-scale invasion, Tavrida was in conflict with the regular army of the Russian Federation — and the Russian military realized that "it is better to leave (them) alone."

"We immediately set the conditions: gentlemen, you set us a task and a deadline. As for how, with what forces, let us decide," Tokmakov said about how his private army would work with Russia's regular army.