Russia reports Ukrainian strikes deep inside the country, border incursion

Ukrainian long-range drones smashed into two oil facilities deep inside Russia on Tuesday, officials said, while an armed incursion claimed by Ukraine-based Russian opponents of the Kremlin unnerved a border region just days before Russia’s presidential election.

The attack by waves of drones across eight regions of Russia displayed Kyiv’s expanding technological capacity as the war extends into its third year. The cross-border ground assault also weakened President Vladimir Putin’s argument that life in Russia has been unaffected by the war, although he remains all but certain to win another six-year term after eliminating all politiborder cal opposition.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon will rush about $300 million worth of weapons to Ukraine after finding some cost savings in its contracts, even though the military remains deeply overdrawn and needs at least $10 billion to replenish all the weapons it has pulled from its stocks to help Kyiv in its desperate fight against Russia, the White House announced Tuesday.

It is the Pentagon’s first announced security package for Ukraine since December, when it acknowledged it was out of replenishment funds. It wasn’t until recent days that officials publicly acknowledged they weren’t just out of replenishment funds, but also $10 billion overdrawn.

The reports of fighting on the Russia-Ukraine were murky, and it was impossible to ascertain exactly what was unfolding in Russia’s

Kursk and Belgorod regions. Cross-border attacks in the area have occurred sporadically since the war began and have been the subject of claims, counterclaims and disinformation.

Soldiers who Kyiv officials say are Russian volunteers fighting for Ukraine claimed to have crossed the border. The Freedom of Russia Legion, the Russian Volunteer Corps and the Siberian Battalion released statements and videos on social media claiming to show them on Russian territory. They said they wanted “a Russia liberated from Putin’s dictatorship.”

The authenticity of the videos couldn’t be independently verified.

AFP/Getty Images/TNS A view of the Belgorod city hall that was hit by a drone attack in Belgorod, Russia, on Tuesday. A cross-border ground attack also rattled nerves ahead of Russia’s election.