Russia battles cross-border raid; nothing to do with us, says Kyiv
Kremlin spokesman said that work was under way to drive out the ‘saboteurs’ from Russian territory
Russia said on Monday it was battling a cross-border incursion by saboteurs who burst through the frontier from Ukraine, in what appeared to be one of the biggest attacks of its kind since the war began last year.
The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region said a Ukrainian “sabotage group” had entered Russian territory in the Graivoron district bordering Ukraine, and was being repelled.
But the Ukrainian outlet Hromadske cited Ukrainian military intelligence as saying two armed Russian opposition groups, the Liberty of Russia Legion and the Russian Volunteer Corps (RVC), both consisting of Russian citizens, had carried out the attack.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russian President Vladimir Putin had been informed and that work was under way to drive out the “saboteurs”, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported.
A senior aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv had nothing to do with the incursion, putting it down to Russia’s emerging “violent resistance movement”.
The reported incursion comes two days after Russia said it had captured the final few blocks of the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, Moscow’s first substantial claim of victory since last summer after the bloodiest land battle in Europe since World War Two.
Russia hits Dnipro city with drones, missiles
Russian forces targeted the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro overnight with 16 missiles and 20 attack drones, Ukraine’s army said Monday.
The attacks on troops and infrastructure were carried out by various types of missiles and Iranian-made Shahed drones, the general staff wrote on Facebook, saying its air defences had destroyed all the drones and four of the cruise missiles.