Rare Cross-Border Attack Into Russia By Insurgents Continue

ANALYSIS – While the Kremlin says that it had pushed pro-Ukrainian militants back across the border, it appears that armed Russian partisans are still fighting inside Southern Russia close to Ukraine.

If so, this is the second day of fighting inside Russia. That is a potentially dangerous development for Moscow.

The New York Times noted that there was an “explosion reported at a defense factory and skirmishes at a border crossing, a day after anti-Kremlin fighters aligned with Ukraine appeared to have begun a rare ground assault inside Russia.”

The Times added:

A British defense intelligence agency statement on Tuesday said fighting “highly likely” broke out in three locations in the Belgorod region. It noted fighting with small arms and drone strikes near Grayvoron, about six miles from the border, and said Russia had evacuated several villages.

The raid into Russia's Belgorod region, which began Monday, appears to be the largest cross-border incursion since Russia's invasion of Ukraine 15 months ago. Villages in the Russian border region were evacuated after coming under sustained shellfire.

Russia claims it killed 70 of the attacking “Ukrainian nationalists” and destroyed four armored vehicles. Moscow also called the attackers “saboteurs.” But Ukraine denies involvement and says the attackers are “Russian patriots” who “rebelled against the Putin regime.”

Meanwhile, two paramilitary groups have claimed responsibility – Free Russia Legion (also known as Liberty of Russia Legion) and Russian Volunteer Corps (RVC) – who describe themselves as Russian armed dissidents opposed to Vladimir Putin.

A representative of the Free Russia Legion said on Tuesday that Ukrainian officers were aware of the operation but had not directed it. The Legion often fights alongside Ukrainian troops.

It uses a white-blue-white flag, seen by part of the Russian opposition as the flag of “free Russia.”

The other group, the RVC, is an anti-Kremlin militia led by Denis Nikitin, a Russian nationalist.

Clearly, Moscow sees this as an internal threat. Earlier on Tuesday, the Russian governor of Belgorod, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said that a “counterterrorism” operation had continued for a second day in the border region.

The New York Times also reported:

The Free Russia Legion operates under the umbrella of Ukraine's International Legion, a fighting force overseen by Ukrainian officers. Ukrainian commanders in the International Legion knew about the operation but had not directed it, Ilya Ponomarev, an exiled former member of the Russian Parliament who described himself as the political representative of the Free Russia Legion, said in a telephone interview on Tuesday.

He described the incursion as an effort to “liberate a certain part of Russian land,” to force the Russian military to divert troops fighting in Ukraine and to destabilize President Vladimir V. Putin's government by showing its inability to defend the countries' lengthy shared border.

“We think now they need to reconsider and deploy more forces all along the Ukrainian border,” Mr. Ponomarev said.

The BBC reported that the two groups told Ukraine's public broadcaster that they were creating “a demilitarized zone on the border with the Russian Federation from which they will not be able to shell Ukraine.”

The Liberty of Russia Legion said on Twitter on Monday it had “completely liberated” the border town of Kozinka. This has yet to be confirmed.

Whether these groups will add any real tactical advantage to the bigger fight or simply serve as a useful Ukrainian media campaign is yet to be seen. But Russia will also try to spin it to its advantage.

As The New York Times reported: “Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, said that even if the attackers were ethnic Russians, they are ‘Ukrainian militants' whose violence justifies Moscow's broader war against its neighbor.”

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.

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