2023-05-22 17:28:45
Real operation or communication stunt? The authorities of the Russian region of Belgorod, located on the Ukrainian border, alerted on Monday to an incursion of “saboteurs” from Ukraine on their soil. kyiv claimed in the process to have “nothing to do” with this operation.
Where does it take place ?
The “saboteurs” were spotted in the Russian region of Belgorod, bordering Ukraine, which has already been the target of attacks several times attributed by Moscow to Kiev but never claimed by the Ukrainian authorities. “A sabotage and reconnaissance group of the Ukrainian army entered the Graivoron district”, bordering Ukraine and located about 65 km west of the city of Belgorod, said regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, who reported six injuries.
According to the Russian official, two people were injured in the shelling of the village of Glotovo, three others in the district of Graivoron and a final one in the village of Zamostie. All these localities are located near the Ukrainian border and in the area where the incursion of fighters is underway, according to the Russian authorities.
“The Russian armed forces, alongside the border guards, the Rosgvardia (national guard) and the FSB (security services) are taking all necessary measures to eliminate the enemy,” he added, in a message on Telegram.
Who are these saboteurs?
The operation was claimed on a telegram channel which presents itself as belonging to the “Freedom Legion for Russia”, a group of Russians fighting on the Ukrainian side, which had already claimed to be at the origin of previous incursions into the same region. “The time has come to put an end to the Kremlin dictatorship”, says in a video broadcast by this channel an armed man dressed in fatigues, in front of comrades in arms. This man would call himself “Caesar” and would be a spokesperson for this unit, which is essentially made up of defectors from the Russian army and which fights in the Donbass. “Caesar” was interviewed last January by the Russian media “Radio Svoboda”, Russian branch of Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty, while he was fighting alongside the Ukrainians in the Bakhmout sector. Courrier international, which published a summary of the interview, describes him as “a former political activist, who gravitated around a lot of right-wing, nationalist and monarchist groups, before turning away from them”. He would have moved to the Ukrainian side in 2014.
According to the channel, the “Freedom Legion for Russia” would have “completely liberated” a village in the Belgorod region and attacked a second locality. The group accurate on Telegram act in concert with the “RDK”, another group of Russian volunteers fighting on the Ukrainian side, formed in 2022 by an ex-neo-Nazi hooligan. According to journalist Cyrille Amoursky, the RDK would have published a video of its soldiers present in two Russian villages located in the region of Belgorod and that of Bryansk, also located on the Ukrainian border.
How are the Kremlin and Ukraine reacting?
President Vladimir Putin was briefed on the incursion, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, calling it an attempt by Ukraine to “distract attention” from the fall of Bakhmout. The Ukrainian presidency, for its part, assured that kyiv had “nothing to do” with this incursion, claiming to follow the situation with “interest”.
Attention has been focused in recent days on the sector of Bakhmout, a city in Donbass, epicenter of the fighting since the beginning of 2023. Moscow claimed responsibility for taking the agglomeration this weekend. Information denied by kyiv, which ensures that its men are progressing “on the flanks of the city”.
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