Russians fighting for Kyiv attack border towns
Units of Russian defectors fighting for Ukraine launched incursions against several Russian border towns yesterday.
Fighters with the Freedom of Russia (FoR) Legion, the Siberian Battalion, and the Russian Volunteer Corps said that they crossed into the Belgorod and Kursk regions in the morning, publishing a series of videos purporting to show clashes with Russian forces on Russian territory.
“The border town of Lozovaya Rudka in the Belgorod region is fully under the control of the liberation forces,” said the militias’ spokesman Ilya Ponomarev, a former Russian MP, adding that fighting was continuing in the town of Tyotkino in Kursk.
The FoR posted a statement on social media claiming that “Russian liberation forces have begun the spring liberation campaign”. It appealed to members of the Russian public to supply information about the locations of military installations.
Moscow’s defence ministry acknowledged attacks by what it called “Ukrainian terrorists” but claimed its forces had “thwarted Kyiv’s attempt to make a breakthrough into the Russian border territory in the Belgorod and Kursk oblasts”.
However, independent investigators geolocated footage from the clashes as having been filmed inside Russian territory.
Pro-Kremlin media reported heavy fighting but claimed that the invaders had been forced back.
“Enemy forces with armoured manoeuvre groups, infantry and light equipment are trying to break through in the Grayvoronsky direction,” said Older Eddy, referring to a district of Belgorod. “Our artillery is working, aviation is striking… there is very intense fighting on several sections of the state border.”
A spokesman for Ukrainian military intelligence, Andrii Yusov, said that the groups were part of Ukraine’s “security and defence forces” but suggested that they were acting independently.
“These are citizens of the Russian Federation, and at home [in Russia] they have the right to do whatever they think is necessary in this situation to protect their civil rights and free their country from the Russian Putin dictatorship”, he added.
Meanwhile, Ukraine launched a drone barrage on targets across
Russia. A fire was reported at the energy company Lukoil’s refinery in the Nizhny Novgorod region, about 260 miles (420km) east of Moscow, after an attack. Another drone targeted Russia’s second-largest oil refinery in the town of Kirishi.
Russia said it had shot down 25 drones over Russian regions and cities including Moscow and St Petersburg. Attacks were reported in several other locations.
Analysts suggested that the attacks by land and air may have been timed to coincide with Russian elections this week, in which President Vladimir Putin is widely expected secure a fifth term in power.