Rebel Russians strike again in blow to Putin
THE Kremlin has blamed the SAS for attacks on Russian border regions carried out by armed insurgents.
Amid reports of a second day of fighting inside Russia yesterday, footage emerged of two rebel units seizing at least four villages and firing at border checkpoints from tanks.
Russia claimed it had routed fighters in one of the biggest incursions of its kind of the 15month war.
Groups opposed to Vladimir Putin, such as the Russian Volunteer Corps and the Legion of Freedom of Russia, are based in Ukraine, working with special forces there. But there is no indication the SAS was involved.
The claim that the SAS was orchestrating operations was made on the Rybar channel on the Telegram social media platform, linked to Russia’s defence ministry.
Commenting on the attacks, moderators wrote: ‘British specialists are in charge of this. We wrote back in May 2022 that sorties and sabotage operations in the border zone were assigned to officers of the British Special Air Service.
‘In fact, the Russian Volunteer Corps and the Legion of Freedom of Russia are simulacra created by British advisers.
‘They are designed, first of all, to bring division and confusion on the territory of the Russian Federation.’
‘Largest incursion of its kind’
Yesterday former British military commander Hamish de BrettonGordon described the operations in Belgorod as ‘a classic diversionary tactic’. He said: ‘It is very effective.
‘The aim is to give the Russians many different security challenges simultaneously, drawing their forces from other areas of the conflict. This is a distraction from operations on the front line in eastern Ukraine.
‘The Russians can’t just let these groups occupy territory, they have to respond and that takes up assets it would rather were situated elsewhere. Another effect is the impact on the local population in Russia.
‘There will be a sense of disbelief that these opposition groups were able to seize territory and hold off Russian security forces for some time. It spreads panic.’
The Ministry of Defence said the clashes began on May 19. The Kremlin claimed 70 attackers had been killed and the opposition groups had been ‘completely eliminated’. Key government buildings in Belgorod, including the interior ministry and a security headquarters, were targeted by drones.
The Ukrainian government said it was watching developments ‘with interest’. It denied being involved.
Meanwhile, a Russian minister thought to have opposed the war has died after falling ill on a flight to Moscow. Pyotr Kucherenko, 46, reportedly suffered a heart attack.
The deputy science minister’s death earlier this week is the latest among high-profile Russians who opposed the conflict.
Last month, energy boss Igor Shkurko was found dead in his prison cell. Earlier this year oil magnate Viatcheslav Rovneiko was found dead at his home.
Putin’s critics say he has sanctioned attempts on the lives of many of his opponents, such as jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny and so-called ‘traitors’ such as Sergei Skripal, who was based in Salisbury, Wiltshire.
Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian security serviceman turned whistleblower was fatally poisoned by polonium-210 in London in 2006.