Anti-Putin Russian fighters in border blitz
Anti-kremlin Russian volunteer groups have carried out an attack in one of the country’s border regions, according to Ukrainian military intelligence.
Fighters from two units opposed to Vladimir Putin’s regime shared footage appearing to show them operating inside Russia’s Belgorod area, near the Ukrainian border, and vowing to ‘free’ the country from his rule.
Uniformed soldiers claiming to be from the Freedom of Russia Legion and the Russian Volunteer Corps shared separate videos of themselves posing with flags and in front of Russian road signs, calling for an end to the kremlin’s dictatorship.
the clips came amid reports of a drone attack in the region around 35 miles from its main city of Belgorod – which said that the device exploded on an administrative building. Ukrainian military intelligence spokesman Andriy Yusov said the two groups were responsible for the operation.
He said: ‘Responsibility for these events was taken by citizens of Russia, particularly the RDk [Russian Volunteer Corps] and the Freedom of Russia Legion. i think we all can only welcome the decisive actions of opposition-minded Russian citizens, who are ready for an armed struggle against the criminal regime of... Vladimir Putin.’
He added that the events in the Russian region would create a ‘security zone’ to protect Ukrainians from cross-border attacks by Russia.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, said that the country was watching events in Belgorod ‘with interest and is studying the situation,’ but kyiv had ‘nothing to do with it’.
He added: ‘the only driving political force in a totalitarian country of tightened screws is always an armed guerrilla movement.
‘As you know, tanks are sold at any Russian military store, and underground guerrilla groups are composed of Russian citizens.’
the kremlin has said the incursion was designed by Ukraine to ‘divert attention from Bakhmut’, after Moscow claimed to have captured the city over the weekend – which kyiv denied.
the reported attack came ahead of a widely expected counteroffensive by kyiv.
Belgorod’s Putin-appointed regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov blamed the attacks on Ukrainian ‘sabotage groups’ and said troops were ‘taking the necessary measures to eliminate the enemy’.