Anti-Putin paramilitaries claim incursion into Russia from Ukraine

Ukraine’s military intelligence says anti-Putin Russian volunteer militias are not acting under orders from Kyiv.

Pro-Ukrainian militias claim they have crossed into Russian border regions and launched attacks, while Russia insists it beat back the raids, staged three days before it holds a presidential election.

Groups of Ukraine-based militias, made up of pro-Kyiv Russian volunteer fighters who oppose Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, reported on Tuesday that they had entered the Kursk and Belgorod regions, their alleged attacks launched amid Ukraine’s largest drone and missile offensive since Ukraine invaded Russia in February 2022. The recent Ukrainian offensive set two oil refineries in Russia ablaze.

Ilya Ponomarev, a former member of the Russian Duma, now acting as political head of the Freedom of Russia Legion, said on Telegram that the raids had been carried out by his group in a “joint operation” with the Russian Volunteer Corps and the Siberian Battalion.

The Legion claimed it was still clashing with Russian forces as of 1:15pm local time (10:15 GMT). It published a video from a drone purportedly showing a vehicle being blown up and fighters on the streets of the village of Tyotkino, on the border between Russia and Ukraine.

However, Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its forces had thwarted the last attack at 8:25am (05:25 GMT). It reported that it had fought off multiple attacks by “Ukrainian terrorist groups” that had attempted to invade from three directions after “intensive shelling” of civilian sites.

“All the Ukrainian attacks were repelled. The enemy was hit by aircraft, rockets and artillery,” it said.

Kursk Governor Roman Starovoyt said a shootout in his region had taken place, but a full-scale incursion had been thwarted. In the wake of the attacks, schools in the city of Kursk are switching to online classes, according to the TASS news agency.

Ukraine-based militias have claimed to be behind previous incursions into Russian territory. Andriy Yusov, a spokesman for Ukraine’s military intelligence, said that the Russian volunteer groups were not acting under orders from Kyiv.

But he added that the attacks showed “the Kremlin is once again not in control of the situation in Russia”.