Three pro-Ukrainian battalions composed of Russian recruits launched an incursion into the border regions of Belgorod and Kursk on Tuesday. A raid which comes a few days before the Russian presidential election.
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A show of force and a destabilization operation, three days before the Russian presidential election. Less than a year after a first incursion, three groups of Russian volunteers fighting for Ukraine claimed to have infiltrated across the border, into the Belgorod and Kursk regions, on the night of Monday 11 to Tuesday 12 March.
This incursion took place at the same time as multiple Ukrainian drone attacks targeting Russian energy sites. “All this is happening against a backdrop of failures [ukrainiens] on the front line”, commented to the Rossia 1 channel and the Ria Novosti press agency, President Vladimir Putin, widely favored in the election, due to the lack of an opponent. Here’s what we know about these attacks.
A staged incursion to denounce the “bloodthirsty dictator” Vladimir Putin
On Tuesday morning, the Russian Defense Ministry said fighters from Ukraine attempted to enter the border regions of Belgorod and Kursk, equipped with tanks and armored vehicles and after a “intensive shelling” During the night. For their part, these three pro-Ukrainian battalions, the Siberian Battalion, the Russian Freedom Legion and the Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK), announced in the morning that they had crossed the border from Ukraine, staging themselves in videos made using on-board cameras and drones. On one of them, we can see three armored vehicles driving in the dark on a country lane.
War in Ukraine: Russian militias attacked their own country (France 2)
On the night of Monday March 11 to Tuesday March 12, Russian militia tanks, fighting alongside Ukraine, entered Russia. They chose to launch this offensive a few days before the Russian presidential election.
The Russian Freedom Legion claimed on Telegram the capture of the village of Tiotkino, in the Kursk region, claiming to have “destroy” a Russian armored vehicle and forced Moscow’s forces to leave “quickly” the village by abandoning heavy weapons. In another video, we can see images of soldiers whom pro-Ukrainian forces present as captive Russians. A claim that could not be independently verified.
“The element of surprise was completely on our side, the Russian army retreated. For the moment, the fighting has calmed down. The situation is pending“, declares one of the militiamen filmed. “Guys, say hello to your native homeland”laughs another. Still in these videos, a soldier from the Siberian battalion says: “Guys, there is no need to vote in elections with ballots, let’s vote with caliber 7.62.”
“We are the same Russians as you”, declared for his part the deputy commander of the Russian Freedom Legion, Maksimillian Andronnikov, in a speech posted on social networks. “We also have the right to express our will. And our will is not to recognize a bloodthirsty dictator like Vladimir Putin.”
Moscow claims to have repelled the offensive before crossing the border
Russian authorities have denied that the assault crossed the border. The Russian Defense Ministry said army soldiers and border guards had “disrupted an attempt to break through by kyiv into the territory of the Belgorod and Kursk regions”reports the national press agency RIA, cited by the New York Times. The governor of Russia’s Kursk region, however, confirmed that pro-Ukrainian forces had approached Tiotkino and that the town was being bombed. “A sabotage and reconnaissance group tried to break through the city. There was a shootout, but there was no breakthrough”he said in a video message posted on Telegram.
Moscow claims to have inflicted heavy losses on its adversary. According to the Russian news agency Tass, Russian forces killed 234 soldiers and destroyed seven tanks and three Bradley fighting vehicles. Again, this claim could not be independently verified.
The pro-Ukrainian offensive left one dead and ten injured on the Russian side, according to local authorities. “Ten civilians were injured, six of them are hospitalized (…) a member of our territorial defense died”said the governor of the Belgorod region on Telegram.
An attack carried out by militia deserters from the Russian army and nationalists
Two of the three groups, the Russian Freedom Legion and the RDK, had previously carried out raids in the Belgorod border region in May and June to confront the border patrol and the Russian army.
A spokesperson for the Russian Freedom Legion, nicknamed “Caesar”, described himself in January 2023 as a “right-wing nationalist”in an interview with Radio Svoboda. This high-profile representative also admitted to having been a member of the Russian Imperial Movement, a far-right paramilitary organization classified as terrorist in Russia, which he left shortly before 2014 and the fighting in Donbass.
The RDK is made up of Russian citizens who have lived in Ukraine for several years. Its ideology is radical and extremist. The structure was officially created in August 2022, but it incorporates elements that had already fought in 2014. Its founder, Denis Kapoustine, born in Moscow, is better known under the name “White Rex”. A former hooligan and organizer of MMA tournaments, in 2008 he launched a brand of clothing featuring a black sun, a symbol popular with neo-Nazi groups.
According to The world, the Russian Freedom Legion and the Russian Volunteer Corps also work within the Ukrainian army. “The two units are integrated and form part of the territorial defense. They are required to respect the injunctions of the Ukrainian general staff, but sometimes its leaders demonstrate a certain autonomy, as was the case in Belgorod” last spring, researcher Adrien Nonjon, specialist in far-right and nationalist movements in Ukraine, explained to franceinfo.
As for the Siberian Battalion, it is incorporated into the International Legion, the unit of thousands of foreigners who joined Ukraine. According to AFP, it has in its ranks around fifty recruits of varied origins, political opponents of Vladimir Putin, Caucasian Russians and members of ethnic minority groups, such as Yakuts and Buryats, who live for the most part in the Far East. Russian East. This battalion shares links with kyiv. The volunteers of this Russian rebel unit are volunteers and under military contract with the Ukrainian armed forces, explains one of its spokespersons to AFP.