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Anti-Putin Russian Militias Are Attacking Russian Villages

Russia said it was investigating the attacks by self-described pro-Ukrainian Russian partisans as acts of terror.
belgorod russia ukraine attack
A hard-right group with Nazi links and a breakaway Russian legion are behind the attacks. PHOTO: TWITTER

Several Russian villages and a border post have become the epicentre for clashes involving Russian partisans who have taken Ukraine’s side in the war. 

Clashes started in Belgorod on Monday and continued along the Ukrainian-Russian border Tuesday. The Russian governor of the area has ordered residents of at least 9 border villages to evacuate their homes to escape the fighting that has wounded at least a dozen civilians.

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Although Russian partisans have claimed small-scale attacks in the past, these are the first significant clashes on Russian territory since its all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. 

Russian officials denounced the attacks by the pro-Ukraine Russian partisans and ordered a large-scale military response. They said prosecutors would be investigating the attacks as terrorism, but as of Tuesday afternoon had made little progress in ejecting the invaders, who appeared to be fortifying positions inside Russia to repel a counterattack.

After small border skirmishes on Friday, the assaults began in earnest Monday as dozens of Russian fighters aligned with Ukraine – backed by a number of tanks and armoured vehicles – attacked a border post near the Russian village of Kozinka. 

The attack on the border post was claimed on social media by the Russian Volunteer Corps, a hard-right nationalist group with links to international Nazi organisations, and the Freedom of Russia Legion, which is made up of Russian military and intelligence officials who have defected to Ukraine’s side.

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Both groups have fought alongside the Ukrainian armed forces against Russia in various forms since 2014. Ukrainian officials denied direct involvement in the incident but appeared pleased at the prospect of ongoing fighting on Russian soil.

“Yes, today the Russian Volunteer Corps and the Freedom of Russia Legion, which consist of citizens of the Russian Federation, have launched an operation to liberate these territories of the Belgorod region from the so-called Putin regime and push back the enemy in order to create a certain security zone to protect the Ukrainian civilian population,” Andriy Yusov, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s military intelligence told the Kyiv media.

The initial attack, part of which was filmed by drone and released on social media, focused on the official border crossing and reportedly killed at least 2 Russian soldiers, according to footage released by the attackers. Several armoured vehicles captured by the attackers were also filmed, and analysts geolocated them to inside Russia itself.

The Freedom of Russia Legion released a video statement during the incident Monday evening that declared its intent to free Russia from the regime of President Vladimir Putin.

“We are Russians just like you. We are people just like you. We want our children to grow up in peace and be free people, so that they can travel, study and just be happy in a free country,” a fighter of the Free Russian Legion said in a video message.

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Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of Belgorod, issued statements that said 12 civilians had been wounded, at least 2 seriously, and asked local residents to leave the area for their own safety until it’s secured.

“There are no civilian deaths to date,” said Gladkov in a statement released on social media. “All necessary actions on the part of law enforcement agencies are being carried out. We are waiting for the completion of the counter-terrorist operation that was announced yesterday.”

On Tuesday, footage of Russian attack helicopters was being shared on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Telegram and the Russian social media site VK. They could be seen operating around the village of Graivoron amid reports of further attacks at least 6 miles (10 km) inside Russia’s borders on government buildings and military positions. The veracity of the footage could not immediately be confirmed. 

Footage of what appeared to be drones striking targets in Graivoron could be seen on social media, with the partisans claiming they hit the headquarters of both the Russian intelligence service the FSB and the Interior Ministry in the village. Russia denied the facilities were intelligence offices and accused Ukraine for attacking civilians. 

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There were no deaths or injuries reported in the drone attacks, according to another statement by a very busy Gladkov.

The Russian Volunteer Corps, which is notorious for its ties with a variety of hard-right and neo-Nazi groups, also released video statements by two well known Russian neo-Nazi activists, Alexey Levin and Kirill Kanakhin.

Levkin, according to author Michael Colborne, who wrote a book about far-right Ukrainian groups and is an analyst for Bellingcat, has been fighting in Ukraine alongside other far-right groups since 2014. Colborne also says he is a major figure in organising neo-Nazi events around Europe, including music festivals featuring radical nationalist and racist bands, including frequent tributes to Adolf Hitler.

Kanakhin, who also openly espouses neo-Nazi ideology, is a well known member of the anti-Putin Russian hard right. Moscow has issued an arrest warrant for him.

The Russian Volunteer Corps’ leader and founder, Denis Nikitin, told the Financial Times in March that the group has repeatedly conducted attacks inside Russia and last week told the paper his group was responsible for major train derailments inside Russia on the 1st and 2nd of May. 

The FT could not confirm Nikitin’s claims, but the assaults on trains by unknown attackers reported in the Russian media correspond to his statement.