Russian volunteers serving Kiev cross the border and attack Belgorod

Russian authorities condemned the attack from Ukraine on the region on Monday Belgorod. It started at nine in the morning over Graivoronski district, which is located 65 kilometers from the border. This was stated on the website of the governor of the region, Viacheslav Gladkov, who assured that the towns of Antónovka and Kozinka, among others, were hit by the bombing.

“A sabotage-reconnaissance group of the Ukrainian army entered the Graivoronsky district,” Gladkov said. According to him, “Russian armed forces, together with border guards, Rosgvardiya [guardia nacional] and FSB [Servicio Federal de Seguridad] They took all necessary measures to liquidate the enemy.

Ukrainian Telegram channel Skrinka Pandora posted a video showing a A Kyiv tank apparently breaks through the Russian border station Graivoronskithrough which, after neutralizing the border guards, some of whom were allegedly wounded, the attacking detachments managed to penetrate the territory of Belgorod and engage in a fight with local forces.

According to the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Moscow Defense Ministry, the clashes took place near the border towns of Glótovo, Kozinka and Gorá-Podol. They did not participate in the Ukrainian army, but fighters from the Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK in the Russian acronym) and the Russian Freedom Legion (LSR). As reported by Gladkov, there were no civilian casualties.

Through three recordings of about five seconds published on Telegram, which refer to different dates, the RDK announced that this Monday’s incursion was the third incursion into Russian territory from Ukraine. The first was on March 2 through the neighboring Briansk region of Russia. In the first video, which appears to have been filmed in the last few hours, several men in military uniforms stop at the entrance sign to the town of Bezliúdovka (Belgorod region), located a few kilometers from the border with Ukraine. Another also shows armed men against the background of the flag of the village of Churovichi, Briansk region (must be in March), and a third in Lyubimov, Kursk region, of an unspecified date.

What happened on March 2 was described by President Vladimir Putin as a “terrorist attack.” This procedure, according to Moscow, caused the death of one person. At the time, the Kiev authorities said they had nothing to do with what happened on Monday The office of the Ukrainian presidency also assured that it was not behind the attack on Belgorod. A fighter who presents himself as the “spokesman” of the Russian Freedom Legion assures in a video published on social networks addressed to the Russian population: “We are Russians like you, but we did not want to justify the actions of criminals in power and we raise arms in defense of our freedom and yours. The message ends in words: “It’s time for the Kremlin dictatorship to end, the Legion is coming home.”

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— Legion “Freedom of Russia” (@legion_svoboda) May 22, 2023

The Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK) is a unit integrated into the Territorial Defense of Ukraine, created in August 2022 and composed of Russian nationalists opposed to Putin. Many of them fought with Ukraine’s Azov Battalion in Donbass in 2014. Another Russian force fighting on Ukraine’s side against Moscow is Russia’s Freedom Legion, made up of prisoners of war, deserters, or people who fled the country to avoid being mobilized and sent to front to fight against Ukraine.