Russian volunteers fighting for Ukraine said they infiltrated Tuesday into Russia to carry out ground attacks against border regions, which Moscow’s army claimed to have repelled, after Ukrainian drone strikes on multiple regions.
These attacks come three days before the start of the Russian presidential election, which should see Vladimir Putin triumph, in the absence of any opposition.
“We have crossed the border,” the unit called the Russian Freedom Legion said in the morning on Telegram, publishing a video in which we can see three armored vehicles driving in the dark on a country path.
Shortly after, the unit claimed to have “destroyed” a Russian armored vehicle in the village of Tiotkino in the Kursk region, located in eastern Ukraine.
The Russian army declared that it had repelled multiple attacks from Ukraine during the night and morning, ensuring that it had prevented any breakthrough into Russian territory.
The armed forces “failed an attempt by the Kiev regime to make a breakthrough into the territory of Russia in the Belgorod and Kursk regions,” the Defense Ministry said.
The Russian governor of the Kursk region, Roman Starovoit, confirmed the attack and reported a slight injury, however denying any “breakthrough” by the attackers.
One unit, called the Sibir Battalion, spoke of “fierce fighting” in Russia and called on Russians to ignore the “presidential” election on March 15-16-17. »
“We can only change things for the better with weapons in hand,” she said, describing the vote as fiction.
This armed incursion comes after a major Ukrainian drone attack in Russia during the night from Monday to Tuesday, notably on two energy sites which were ravaged by fires, one of which was hundreds of kilometers from the front.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov assured Tuesday that the Russian military was doing “what is necessary” to fight against all Ukrainian attacks.
Facing the Russian invasion for two years, kyiv regularly attacks Russian regions using drones, but Ukrainian incursions led by Russian citizens are very rare.
Ukraine, which has been targeted every day for more than two years by Russian missiles, rockets and drones, responds regularly.
800 km from Ukraine
According to Russian authorities, Ukrainian drones particularly targeted Orel and Kstovo, two Russian towns located approximately 160 km and 800 km respectively from the Ukrainian border, setting fire to energy depots there.
The Russian Ministry of Defense claimed to have shot down 25 Ukrainian aircraft in the region of Moscow (2), Leningrad (1), as well as in those of Belgorod (11), Kursk (11) and Bryansk (1). , all three border Ukraine.
In the industrial zone of Kstovo, in the Russian region of Nizhny Novgorod, an oil refinery caught fire according to the regional governor, Gleb Nikitin. The fire was then brought under control, according to the state agency Tass.
The refinery, which belongs to Russian oil giant Lukoil, is one of the largest fuel producers in Russia, according to information available on its official website.
The governor of the Oryol region, Andrei Klychkov, also announced that a fuel complex had been attacked and that firefighters there too were “on the scene”.
According to an emergency services official cited by the Ria Novosti agency, a tank containing petroleum products caught fire.
At 10 a.m. local time, Mr. Klychkov assured that the fire had been contained and that the “situation was completely under control”.
Power cuts
Ukrainian drones also attacked the Russian region of Belgorod, bordering Ukraine, on the night of Monday to Tuesday, without causing any injuries, but damaging a power line, and depriving seven municipalities of electricity, according to the regional governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov.
The Belgorod region was also the target of Ukrainian strikes which targeted the Graivoron district and the town of Chebekino on Tuesday morning where a woman was injured, according to Mr. Gladkov.
A drone was shot down Tuesday morning in Kirishi, in the Leningrad region, located near Saint Petersburg, several hundred kilometers from Ukraine, according to local governor Alexander Drozdenko.
Finally, the Ukrainian navy claimed responsibility on Tuesday for the destruction of a Russian “command post” installed on an oil tanker stranded on the Kinbourn Isthmus, in the Black Sea, near the estuary of the Dnipro River. The ship also served as a “launch platform” for small drones in the Kherson region, the navy said.
Since last summer, the Ukrainian army has increased drone attacks against Russia, striking deeper and deeper. Although most of the devices are shot down, targets, particularly energy and industrial ones, are regularly hit.