Anti-Kremlin fighters enter Russian territory for a second day of war
A rare cross-border attack in southern Russia by anti-Kremlin fighters aligned with Ukraine lasted into a second day on Tuesday, with reports of an explosion at a defense factory and clashes at a crossroads, in one of the most brutal incursions into Russian territory since the beginning of the war.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Tuesday it had pushed back all pro-Ukrainian fighters across the border from the Belgorod region and dozens of “saboteurs” had been killed. The claim could not be verified and people representing the anti-Kremlin fighters claimed that the attacks continued.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitri S. Peskov described the attackers as “Ukrainian militants” whose violence justified Moscow’s war against its neighbour. “This confirms once again that Ukrainian militants are continuing their activities against our country,” Peskov told reporters on Tuesday.
When the raids began Monday, smoke could be seen from explosions, according to drone video verified by The New York Times. Another video showed a soldier and an armored vehicle with Ukrainian markings about three miles into Russian territory. In Bryansk, a Russian border region in the north, a warehouse of a military factory near the town of Dyatkovo caught fire on Tuesday, local news media reported.
Some pro-Russian analysts feared the attacks posed a new set of battlefield problems for Moscow.
Ukraine has denied any direct involvement in the raids and views the border attacks as a sign of internal division in Russia. A Ukrainian deputy defense minister, Hanna Maliar, described the fighters as “Russian patriots” who rose against the government of President Vladimir V. Putin.
A group called the Free Russia Legion, made up of Russians who have taken up arms for Ukraine, has claimed responsibility for bringing the war into Russian territory. The volunteer unit operates under the umbrella of the Ukrainian International Legion, forces overseen by Ukrainian officers.
Ilya Ponomarev, an exiled former member of Russia’s parliament who described herself as the legion’s political representative, said by telephone on Tuesday that the raids were an attempt to force Moscow’s military to distract warring troops in Ukraine and overthrow the government of Ukraine. to destabilize Putin. by showing its inability to defend its long border with Ukraine.
“We think they should now reconsider and deploy more troops along the Ukrainian border,” said Mr. Ponomarev. He added that the group captured about a dozen Russian border guards, a claim that could not be verified.
He also said that Ukrainian officers were aware of the operation but had not directed it.
A senior Ukrainian official said the Ukrainian army was acting in support of the cross-border fighters and protecting the border with Ukraine in case of a Russian counter-attack. The official, who spoke anonymously to reveal details about the mission in Russia, said no Ukrainian fighters had entered Russian territory.
Andriy Zagorodnyuk, a former Ukrainian defense minister who now advises the Kiev government, said the border raids were a milestone because they involved armed forces, which could force Russia to deploy more of its troops along the border instead of along the front line.
“Russians will see that they have problems between their own citizens, so the idea of united Russia is seriously damaged,” said Mr. Zagorodnyuk.
A British Defense Intelligence Agency rack confirmed on Tuesday that fighting was “very likely” to have broken out at three locations in the Belgorod region. It noted small arms fighting and drone strikes near Grayvoron, about six miles from the border, and said Russia had evacuated several villages.
Russia, it said, is facing a growing security threat at its border with “warfare losses, improvised explosive device attacks on railway lines and now direct partisan actions.” It also said Moscow would most likely use the attacks to “support the official narrative that it is the victim in the war”.
On Monday, the Free Russia Legion said it had “liberated” the border village of Kozinka with another pro-Ukrainian group, the Russian Volunteer Corps. Those claims could not be confirmed.
On Tuesday, Aleksey Baranovsky, a spokesman for the Free Russia Legion’s political wing, said the fighters had taken two more villages, Gorkovsky and Shchetinovka, and controlled about 7.7 square miles in Russia. Those claims could not be confirmed either.
A senior Ukrainian official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss events on the battlefield acknowledged that the Free Russia Legion had suffered losses.
It would not be the first time pro-Ukrainian fighters have attacked villages across the Russian border. In March, the Russian Volunteer Corps said it had briefly raided villages in Russia’s Bryansk region, and the Kremlin Security Council called an emergency session. The corps is led by a Russian nationalist in exile and is part of a motley crew of Russians opposed to Putin’s regime.
While residents of the Belgorod region have long lived with the sounds and explosions of war, the attacks could heighten fear in Russia and tarnish Putin’s popularity, said Ivan Fomin, a Russian analyst with the Washington-based Center for European Policy Analysis. .
“Some of the more aggressive segments of Russian society will see these attacks as another sign of the Kremlin’s weakness and incompetence,” he said. “So Putin may lose some popularity among those who strongly support the war.”
But the raid could also have a rally-round-the-flag effect, he said.
“If he can illustrate the infiltration of Russian territory by the sabotage groups from Ukraine,” Mr Fomin said, “it could make it easier for him to sell a story about Russia being attacked and defending itself.”
Igor Girkin, a Russian military blogger also known as Igor Strelkov, wrote that if the news of the border attacks were true, “the inevitable formation of a continuous front along this border, which will have to be filled from somewhere with combined arms units and formations of the Russian Armed Forces, is on the agenda.”
Placing more soldiers along the border would make Russia’s forces even thinner and benefit Ukraine, he concluded.
Even before Monday’s attack, Belgorod residents had shared a video, the location of which could not immediately be independently confirmed, calling for the Russian government to arm them in defense against a possible incursion.
A man standing in front and reading from a newspaper says: “We fully understand that our armed forces will not fully protect us in the run-up to the offensive led by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The front line is huge.”
When the attacks began on Monday, the Russian governor of Belgorod, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said Moscow’s army, border service and intelligence were “taking the necessary measures to eliminate the enemy”.
Mr Gladkov put the region on a counter-terrorism basis by imposing temporary restrictions on movement and suspending activities involving hazardous materials.
He said that the region had been shelled 15 times by Tuesday morning and that one civilian had been killed. He later lifted anti-terrorism measures.
Photos and videos verified by The Times appeared to show that pro-Ukrainian fighters had used at least three US armored vehicles during Monday’s raid on Russia. It was unclear how they obtained American equipment. Russian forces captured at least two of the vehicles, visual evidence showed.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said: “We are skeptical at this time about the veracity of these reports.” He added that the United States “does not encourage or facilitate strikes within Russia”.
The Russian border in the area is well fortified with mines, trenches and barriers. Since the start of the war, authorities have spent about $125 million to strengthen the defenses of the Belgorod region, according to a statement by the regional minister of construction in February.
But Russia, which this week won a major military victory in the devastated city of Bakhmut after a grueling nine-month battle, has taken several blows during the war. These include an explosion that damaged the bridge connecting occupied Crimea to the Russian mainland and the sinking of the cruiser Moskva, the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet.
Yuriy Karin, an analyst with a group that exposes Russian propaganda, said Ukraine, after years of denying its military interventions in eastern Ukraine, may now be doing the same in southern Russia.
“It is a reflection of the situation created by Russia in Crimea and Donbas” in 2014, when Russia sent soldiers with unmarked uniforms and the Kremlin denied any connection to the fighters, Mr Karin said.
Reporting contributed by Oleksandr Chubko, Milan Mazeva, Oleg Matsnev, Oleksandr Chubko, Julian E Barnes, Riley Mellen, Christoph Koettl And Dmitry Khavin.