Pro-Ukrainian fighters liberate a village in Russia’s Belgorod region

A group of anti-Kremlin fighters stormed Russia’s Belgorod region bordering Ukraine on Monday, advancing down a main road in armored vehicles as Russian forces rushed to respond.

The sabotage group, composed of Russians who have aligned themselves with Ukraine’s military, claimed to have “liberated” Russian territory. The Kremlin promised to “destroy” the group, and videos shared by Belgorod residents showed attack helicopters flying over homes in the area.

While anti-Kremlin Russian groups have previously launched operations within Russia, this appears to be the first in which the goal is to capture territory. A Ukrainian military intelligence officer confirmed his government’s knowledge of the operation but stopped short of claiming direct involvement.

The fighters in the video appear to be from two Ukraine-based groups opposed to the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine: the Russian Volunteer Corps and the Free Russia Legion. Both have claimed responsibility for Monday’s attack in their country.

The legion posted on Friday on its channel on the Telegram messaging app that it had “completely liberated” a small border settlement inside Russia called Kozinka, and was moving towards Gravoron, 60km from the regional centre. “Russia will be free!” declared it.

“We are Russians just like you. We are people just like you. We want our children to grow up in peace and be free people, so that they can travel, study and be happy in a free country. video message,

A second video published by the group on a closed Telegram channel purportedly shows the body of a dead Russian border guard amid a jumble of papers and Russian passports in an office, with a portrait of President Vladimir Putin hanging on the wall. The authenticity of the video could not be independently verified.

Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, acknowledged the intrusion. In a short post on Telegram, he said five people from a local village were injured in the shelling.

A Russian state media outlet reported that fighters had seized the local town hall of another small settlement adjacent to Gravoron and across the border.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that “work was underway to squeeze Ukrainian saboteurs out of Russian territory and destroy this sabotage group”. He added that “there are sufficient forces and means on the ground” to do so.

Peskov said that Putin had been informed about the intrusion. He cited a Russian claim on Sunday that the operation was aimed at “distracting attention” from Bakhmut after its forces captured the eastern Ukraine town. Kiev insists the battle for the city is “not over”.

While Ukraine stopped short of claiming involvement in the attack, Andrey Yusov, a spokesman for the country’s military intelligence, told Ukrainian state media about an operation being carried out by Russian citizens to make Kiev a “security zone”. I knew Protecting Ukrainians near the border and occupying the territory there.

The Russian Volunteer Corps is led by Russian far-right extremist and former mixed martial arts fighter Denis Nikitin and is composed of other Russians opposed to the Putin regime.

Nikitin, who ran a white nationalist clothing company before the full-scale invasion, did not respond to requests for comment on Monday. But he posted several videos on the group’s Telegram channel that appeared to show armed members of the group marching on Russian territory in the Belgorod region.

In one video, fighters in uniform are seen driving an armored vehicle with Ukrainian military markings. Another shows the group posing in front of signs showing that they have entered several Russian villages.

The Russian Volunteer Corps has made several similar incursions into Russia since early March, after which Russia’s Supreme Court recognized the group as a terrorist organization.

Nikitin told the Financial Times in March that he and his fighters wanted to prove that some of Russia’s most heavily guarded border areas could be breached.

Last week, Nikitin told the FT that he and his unit were behind a series of attacks on Russia’s railway lines in the Bryansk region. “We are focused on the railway war that we are conducting in the Bryansk region, very successfully,” he said.

The FT could not verify his claims, but they were in line with similar infiltrations and attacks confirmed by the Russian Volunteer Corps. Russian authorities have opened criminal cases into the railway attacks.

The Free Russia Legion is also claimed to be composed of Russian citizens, including Russian soldiers, who defected to Ukraine and formed the unit with the assistance of the State Security Service of Ukraine. The unit has stated that its goal is to “protect the Ukrainian people from real fascists”.