Rogue Russians ‘advancing deep into border regions’
Russian volunteers fighting for Ukraine have taken prisoners and advanced deep into Russian territory as their cross-border raid intensifies.
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 yesterday.
The Russian Volunteer Corps chief, known by his code name Fortuna, said: “There are directions where divisions have advanced several kilometres. Others have advanced several dozen kilometres.
“We have prisoners, I cannot 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.
The groups have urged Russian soldiers to surrender and 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 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 the Kursk 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 160km to the southeast in the Belgorod region.
Before the video was circulated online, the Russian rebel groups 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 the shelling of Belgorod intensified, Denis Nikitin, leader of the Russian Volunteer Corps, urged civilians to also escape the fighting. “Immediately leave Kursk and Belgorod regions, all major population centres,” he said in a video shared on the Telegram messaging app. “We will open fire on military targets in this area within 1.5 hours of this announcement.” Soon afterwards, the rebel groups began sharing battlefield 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 as Dmitry Alekseevich Golyshkin, in an attack on a car in Russia. Footage shared on social media showed the burning wreckage of a vehicle on a road.
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 three groups said they aimed to sow chaos in the leadup to Putin’s expected victory in this weekend’s Russian presidential elections.
“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 that the groups are 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.
Ukraine’s defence intelligence released purported intercepted audio of a discussion between two Russian citizens about orders to evacuate civilians from the area. “Uncle texted, basically, that buses are standing or going. Z,” a voice said. “Mum called me, Dima called. They said they were evacuating.”
Russia’s defence ministry claimed to have repelled the cross-border raids. It shared footage of what it said were destroyed tanks and armoured fighting vehicles belonging to the anti-Putin fighters.
Meanwhile, Ukraine has begun rotating its frontline troops amid concerns of an acute manpower shortage.
Oleksandr Syrskyi, the Ukrainian army chief, announced that Kyiv had commenced troop rotations for those who had been at the front “for a long time” as its forces come under heavy Russian attacks on the eastern front.
“This will allow us to stabilise the situation and positively affect the moral and psychological state of our soldiers,” he added.
Ukraine is struggling with an acute manpower shortage as the war enters its third year, with parliament considering a new mobilisation law after its initial efforts to lower the age of conscription failed.
Nato members are not doing enough to help Kyiv as Ukraine suffers an acute shell shortage, the alliance’s secretary general Jens Stoltenberg says.
In an unusually blunt address about the state of the war, Stoltenberg said Nato allies had the capacity to provide more to Ukraine but needed to show the political will to do so.
“The Ukrainians are not running out of courage, they are running out of ammunition,” he told reporters in Brussels. “Ukraine needs even more support, and they need it now.”
His urgent warning comes as the United States continues to drag its feet over passing a US$65 billion (NZ$106b) package of aid for Ukraine through congress.
“Nato allies are not providing Ukraine with enough ammunition, and that has consequences on the battlefield every day,” Stoltenberg said. “It is one of the reasons why the Russians have been able to make some advance on the battlefield over the last weeks and months.
“We have the capacity, the economies, to be able to provide Ukraine what they need. This is a question of political will. To take the decisions and to prioritise support for Ukraine.” – Telegraph Group