The Department of Special Tasks is tasked with conducting covert attacks in Europe and beyond. According to Western intelligence officials cited by the Wall Street Journal, the unit is subordinate to the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces (GRU) and has operated from Moscow since 2023. Those officials identify three main tasks for the unit: carrying out killings and sabotage overseas; infiltrating Western companies and universities; and recruiting and training foreign agents. It absorbed Unit 21955, which was responsible for the poisoning of Sergey Skripal in the UK in 2018.