Russia claimed on Tuesday to have “crushed” with its air force and artillery the group that attacked the border region of Belgorod the day before from Ukraine, the most serious incursion into Russian territory since the start of the conflict.
On Monday, fighters who entered Russia from Ukraine attacked several localities in the Belgorod region, which also came under artillery fire and drone attacks that forced residents to flee.
The Kremlin has expressed ‘deep concern’ and called for ‘greater efforts’ to prevent the incursions, amid a surge of attacks on Russian soil in recent months that have raised questions about the strength of Moscow’s defenses .
The Russian Ministry of Defense assured Tuesday that it had repelled this incursion after an operation of unprecedented scale, which notably mobilized aviation and artillery.
“The nationalist formations have been blocked and crushed,” the Russian ministry said in a statement, referring to the fighters who came from Ukraine during this incursion.
“The rest of the nationalists were pushed back to the territory of Ukraine, where the strikes […] continued until their total elimination,” the ministry said, claiming to have killed “more than 70 Ukrainian terrorists.”
These statements were immediately unverifiable from an independent source.
“More effort”
Russia has accused kyiv of being behind the attack, but Ukrainian authorities deny any involvement.
“We are not waging war on foreign territories,” Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Ganna Maliar assured on Tuesday, seeing it as an “internal Russian crisis”.
The attack was claimed on a Telegram channel which presents itself as belonging to the “Legion Freedom for Russia”, a group of Russians fighting on the Ukrainian side, which had already claimed to be behind previous incursions in the same region. .
Another similar group would participate in the operation, the “Russian Volunteer Corps”.
“What happened (Monday) arouses deep concern and once again demonstrates that Ukrainian fighters continue their activities against our country,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
“It requires more effort from us, these efforts continue to be made and the special military operation (in Ukraine) continues so that this does not happen again,” he added.
The governor of Belgorod, Vyacheslav Gladkov, declared that several localities, including Grayvoron, the capital of the district of the same name, had been subjected to “numerous” bombardments, using artillery pieces, multiple rocket launchers and of drones.
Nine localities were also evacuated, said the governor, who reported a total of at least 12 injured civilians.
In response to the incursion, Russia decreed on Monday an “anti-terrorist” regime in the entire Belgorod region, a measure which strengthens the powers of the authorities to carry out armed operations, control civilians or even evacuate populations. This regime had been used in Chechnya from 1999 to 2009.
The Russian Investigative Committee, responsible for the main investigations, announced on Tuesday the opening of an investigation for “terrorist act”.
Silent poutine
As a vast Ukrainian counter-offensive looms, Russian territory has been the target in recent months and weeks of an increasing number of sabotages, bombings and drone attacks attributed to Kiev, but never claimed by the Ukraine which prefers to evoke actions of Russian partisans.
Russian President Vladimir Putin did not speak about the incursion, confining himself, during a decoration ceremony at the Kremlin on Tuesday, to speaking in a very general way about the conflict in Ukraine.
“Yes, Russia is facing difficult times, but today is a special moment for our national consolidation”, he said, repeating that Moscow is defending the Russian populations of the Ukrainian Donbass.
On Monday, his spokesman said he had been informed of the incursion into the Belgorod region.
The Kremlin on Monday accused kyiv of being behind the attack, with the aim of “diverting attention” from the seizure claimed by Russian forces of the city of Bakhmout, in eastern Ukraine.
Russian forces claimed this weekend to have taken the entire devastated city, the scene of the longest and deadliest battle of the conflict, where both sides suffered heavy casualties.
kyiv denied the loss of Bakhmout, saying again on Tuesday that “the battles for the city […] continue”.
In addition, President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the front line in the Donetsk region in the east on Tuesday, where he met with soldiers.