Pro-kyiv Russians make gains in border raid
Anti-kremlin forces press deep into enemy territory and capture prisoners ahead of Putin’s re-election
RUSSIAN volunteers fighting for Ukraine took prisoners and advanced deep into Russian territory as their cross-border raid intensified yesterday.
The anti-kremlin militants behind the joint operation were battling Moscow’s forces “several dozen kilometres” inside the country after launching a surprise strike from Ukraine, a commander said. The Russian Volunteer Corps chief, known by his codename Fortuna, said: “There are directions where divisions have advanced several kilometres, others have advanced several dozen kilometres.”
“We have prisoners, I can not say the number yet as hostilities are still ongoing,” he added.
It was the third day of fighting since the operation was launched by the Freedom of Russia Legion alongside the Siberian Battalion and the Russian Volunteer Corps. All three groups are made up of Russian citizens but are under the control of the Ukrainian military.
Yesterday, the groups urged Russian soldiers to surrender and encouraged civilians to evacuate the Russian frontier regions of Belgorod and Kursk. The Kyiv loyalists repeatedly warned of large-scale attacks against Moscow’s military presence in the area, as the cross-border scuffles escalated.
Earlier this week, the Russian rebels used tanks and armoured vehicles to punch across the border in separate directions. The Freedom of Russia Legion claimed to have occupied a small frontier village, Tyotkino, in Russia’s Kurk region in the initial attack.
Yesterday, unverified battlefield footage appeared to show Russian soldiers waving white flags to surrender to the pro-kyiv forces in Spodariushino, almost 100 miles to the south-east in the Belgorod region. Before the video was circulated online, the Russian rebels had urged their countrymen fighting in Vladimir Putin’s forces to surrender.
“It is enough to simply surrender to representatives of the Russian liberation forces, notifying them that you are surrendering because of ‘I want to live,’” the Russian Volunteer Corps and Freedom of Russia Legion wrote in a joint statement.
As shelling on the Russian city of Belgorod intensified, Denis Nikitin, leader of the Russian Volunteer Corps, urged civilians to also escape the fighting in a video on the Telegram messaging app.
Soon after the rebel groups shared footage of burning buildings. The Russian Volunteer Corps released footage that it claimed to be of first-person view drones smashing into Russian armoured vehicles. The group also claimed to have killed a “military man”, named Dmitry Alekseevich Golyshkin, in an attack on a car.
Footage shared on social media showed the burning wreckage of a vehicle on a road inside Russia.
The Freedom of Russian Legion posted an aerial video shot from a drone appearing to show two buildings being pounded by artillery fire. “While Putin’s army is destroying civilian homes, Legion artillerymen destroyed two ammunition depots of Putin’s combatants in Tyotkino at once,” it wrote on X.
It is the largest cross-border incursion launched by Kyiv loyalist Russians since the start of the full-scale invasion. The groups said they aimed to sow chaos in the lead-up to Putin’s expected victory in this weekend’s presidential election.
“The raid had been prepared for several months. We have a number of different scenarios for this kind of raid,” Commander Fortuna said.
While Kyiv has said the units are made up of Russian citizens operating independently, officials have acknowledged the groups were acting as part of “Ukraine’s security and defence forces”.
The cross-border skirmishes were accompanied by sustained Ukrainian drone and missile strikes on Belgorod.
Russian officials said Ukrainian forces had fired at least eight missiles at the frontier region, killing one person and wounding six others.