The armed incursion into Belgorod is causing concern in Washington and putting Russia on alert

The Kiev-sponsored armed incursion of Russian volunteers into Russia’s Belgorod region opened a new front for the Kremlin and may have benefited Ukraine on the battlefield, but it also provoked concern in Washington over apparent use of American vehicles in surgery.

Hours before Russian President Vladimir Putin met with his Security Council to discuss the crisis caused by this cross-border military operation, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby addressed the events in an interview with CNN.

“We don’t want to encourage or enable that, of course We don’t want US-made material to be used to attack Russian soil.”Kirby said of the video showing armed Russian volunteers driving Humvee and MaxxPro military vehicles like those Washington sent to Ukraine.

In one of his comments on the attack, which Kiev authorities fully attribute to the two Russian rebel groups involved, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, Mikhailo Podolyak, said of the material used: “As is known, tanks are sold in every Russian military store.

The phrase echoes what Russian President Vladimir Putin said about Russian military uniforms that appeared in Crimea during Russia’s 2014 annexation of the peninsula.

Do not invade Russian territory with received weapons and defense equipment is one of the conditions of all military packages received by Ukraineboth from the United States and other Western allies.

Moscow’s dilemma

According to two spokesmen for the Legion of Freedom for Russia and the Russian Volunteer Corps, the two formations that led the incursion, their fighters penetrated tens of kilometers into Russian territory and took control of several towns during the “most active phase” of the operation. .

While the volunteers claimed no casualties, the Russian Defense Ministry reported the killing of more than 70 armed infiltrators it called “Ukrainian terrorists”, without specifying that at least some of the fighters were Russian nationals.

Whatever the actual outcome of the operation, the penetration of armed groups of Russian citizens opposing President Putin into its territory represents a new unexpected threat to Russia.

Ukraine’s deputy defense minister, Hanna Malyar, hinted at the military logic of the operation, which would not be possible without, at least, the tacit consent of the Kiev government, stating that the possibility of new cross-border operations of this type puts the Kremlin in front of a new dilemma.

According to Malyar, Russia will have to choose between continuing to focus all of its efforts on the Ukrainian front or beginning to focus some of its troops and attention on defending Russia’s extensive border with Ukraine against new armed expeditions.

The Secretary of National Security and Defense of Ukraine, Oleksii Danilov, warned that this kind of action carried out by “disgruntled Russians” in Kiev could be repeated in other Russian regions near Ukraine, such as Briansk, Kursk and Voronezh.

Meanwhile, on his social networks, The Russian Volunteer Corps and the Legion of Freedom for Russia they are constantly publishing photos that would prove their presence on Russian territory and sympathies with which he would count himself among his inhabitants.

“Yes, sometimes we enter noisy and noisy, as recently happened in the Belgorod region,” reads one of the last messages of the Volunteer Corps. “But sometimes circumstances call for quieter attacks,” the message added, accompanied by a photo of its fighters allegedly re-photographed on the Russian side of the border.

The text ends with a warning: “In any case, the border of the Russian Federation is still full of cracks, despite the billions invested in its strengthening.”