Russian Authorities Declare “Counterterrorist Operation” In Response To Raid By Anti-Putin Forces
Local authorities in Belgorod declared a “counterterrorist operation” on Monday, after self-described anti-Putin partisan fighters mounted an incursion into the region bordering Ukraine.
Belgorod Oblast governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said that the situation in the Grayvoron district remained “tense”, after fighters of the Freedom of Russia Legion and the Russian Volunteer Corps claimed to be advancing on the titular town at the center of the district, seven kilometers north of the border. Gladkov said that a large part of the civilian population had been evacuated by bus or using their own vehicles, while eyewitnesses that spoke to Russian news service TASS report that internet and mobile communications have been jammed in the region.
The two anti-Putin organizations announced that they had captured the Russian settlements of Kozinka and Gora-Podol earlier on Monday. While the Russian Volunteer Corps has uploaded videos of their fighters with captured Russian armored vehicles, their claims of territorial control are not currently independently verifiable.
Ukraine’s military intelligence service has confirmed that the Freedom of Russia Legion and the Russian Volunteer Corps are fighting in Belgorod, with spokesperson Andriy Yusov claiming on Ukrainian television that Russian forces were evacuating a nuclear weapon storage facility as a result of the raid. Yusov declined to comment on whether the fighters were acting under Ukrainian orders, describing the incursion as an “internal conflict” between Russian citizens. Earlier, Yusov had stated that fighters of the two groups sought to create a security zone for Ukrainian civilians.
In a statement, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin had been notified of the incursion. Peskov accused Kyiv of attempting to divert attention from Russian claims to have captured the city of Bakhmut, reducing the political impact of the fall of the city in eastern Ukraine.
The Freedom of Russia Legion claims to be formed from Russian soldiers that defected from the Russian military since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, while the Russian Volunteer Regiment was founded by Russian neo-Nazi football hooligan Denis Kapustin in August 2022. While both organizations claim to be fighting for Ukraine and against Russia, their relationship with the Ukrainian military as a whole is unclear.