Fighting went on for more than 24 hours, the Russian authorities have now declared the “anti-terrorist operation” in the Belgorod border region to be over and the state of alarm has been lifted. Ukraine denied any responsibility.
In the afternoon, the information channel of the Russian state television showed a black-and-white video of the Ministry of Defense in a continuous loop in the top right of the current program: heavy bombings in a rather agricultural building complex, including the signboard: “Destruction of the diversion group in the Belgorod region”.
The spokesman for the Defense Ministry, Igor Konashenkov, also declared in the afternoon that what began Monday morning was officially over: an armed attack apparently originating from Ukrainian state territory on towns near the border – carried out by perhaps 80 to a hundred armed men with several armored vehicles:
In the course of the anti-terrorist operation, the nationalist formations were blocked and defeated by airstrikes, artillery fire and active action by the Western Military District’s border guard units. The remnants of the nationalists were pushed back into the territory of Ukraine, where they continued to be exposed to fire until their complete annihilation. More than 70 Ukrainian terrorists, four armored fighting vehicles and five pick-up trucks were destroyed.
The spokesman did not provide any information about his own losses, nor about why a rather small armed group was able to occupy Russian territory for a day without any major military resistance – after 15 months of war against Ukraine.
Peskow: “Even bigger efforts” needed
Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov admitted that the attack was a cause for grave concern. “This again confirms that Ukrainian militants continue their activities against our country. This requires even greater efforts from us,” he said. “The special military operation will also continue to prevent such intrusions in the future.”
According to the Belgorod governor, twelve civilians were injured, and an elderly woman died during the evacuation. During the night there were also said to have been drone attacks on the city of Belgorod, which is about 30 kilometers from the border.
Ukraine denies responsibility
Ukraine officially denied any responsibility. Only Russian citizens would fight on Russian soil – “Russian patriots who rebelled against President Putin,” said Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maljar. On Monday, the Ukrainian military intelligence service named the two groups involved: the “Legion Freedom of Russia” and the “Russian Volunteer Corps”.
While the “Legion of Freedom of Russia” fights against the Russian army with volunteers and former prisoners of war who have defected in Ukraine as part of the Ukrainian army, this has not been officially confirmed for the second group: the “Russian Volunteer Corps”, which is considered to be right-wing extremist, founded by a Russian neo-Nazi who was born in Moscow, grew up in Cologne and is now supposed to fight against Russia in Ukraine.
Although members of this “Russian Volunteer Corps” were already involved in an attack on a border town in the Russian region of Bryansk at the beginning of March, the fighting yesterday and today was the heaviest on Russian territory since the beginning of the war against Ukraine 15 months ago.
Kiev: Bakhmut not fully captured
Why now? Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Konashenkov said: “After suffering defeat in the city of Artemovsk, the Kiev regime began to carry out terrorist actions against the civilian population.”
In addition to the denial of direct Ukrainian involvement in the attack in Belgorod, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense issued a second one concerning the city of Bakhmut, which was renamed Artjomovsk in Soviet times: Bakhmut has not yet been completely taken by Russian troops.