New attacks reported in Belgorod; Russia accuses attackers using Western weapons

Belgorod, the border region in southwestern Russia, is becoming a new boiling point between Moscow and the West amid the war in Ukraine.

The Kremlin attacked the United States and Europe this Wednesday, May 24, after assuring that the “pro-Ukrainian” fighters who in recent days have carried out attacks on Russian territory are acting with weapons supplied by Kiev’s Western allies.

A situation that would demonstrate, according to the Russian government, the growing foreign participation in the largest conflict on European soil in the 21st century, ordered by President Vladimir Putin 15 months ago.

“It is no secret for us that more and more equipment is being delivered to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. It is no secret that this equipment is being used against our own Army. And it is no secret for us that the direct and indirect involvement of Western countries in this conflict is growing day by day,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in recent hours.

Russia denounces new drone attacks against Belgorod

The Kremlin’s statements came a few hours after the governor Vyacheslav Gladkov pointed out that the region that shares a border with eastern Ukraine was again the target of attacks with “numerous” drones, during the early hours of the morning.

According to the official, “a large number” of drones were intercepted and shot down by Russian troops.

Although the authorities did not report fatalities or injuries, they indicated that several administrative buildings, residential buildings and cars were damaged.

“There were a large number of drone strikes. Air defense systems took care of most of them,” Gladkov said.

The cross-border assaults, which in recent days have become the center of accusations between kyiv and Moscow, were claimed by two militias opposed to the Kremlin: the Russian Volunteer Corps and the Russian Freedom Legion.

These are Russian groups that oppose Putin and assure that they are fighting on the Ukrainian side, although the authorities of the attacked country affirm that only Russian citizens have participated in both the armed clashes and the attacks in recent days in Belgorod.

On Tuesday, Moscow assured that its military in the area “neutralized” and forced to retreat the remnants of fighters that, it maintains, come from Ukraine.

But militia members said they returned to Ukrainian soil voluntarily as they prepare for future attacks. Despite the fact that the Kremlin indicated that at least 70 “terrorists” died in the fighting on Tuesday, the Russian Freedom Legion denied that version and maintained that it did not lose “not a single soldier.”

Strategy from Ukraine in the face of the announced counteroffensive?

Although Kiev has denied any role in the cross-border incursion, the largest on Russian soil since the invasion of Ukraine began, military experts interviewed by Reuters indicate that the operations in Belgorod would have been coordinated with the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

All in the midst of an attempt to force the Kremlin to divert its troops from the battlefront within Ukrainian territory to the Russian region, at a time when the Kiev Army is preparing a major counteroffensive to recover its territories occupied by the invading soldiers and attack them. a hit “p”psychological” to Moscow.

“The Ukrainians are trying to push the Russians in different directions to open gaps. The Russians are forced to send reinforcements (…) They will have to respond to this and put troops there and then have a lot of troops along the border area, even if the Ukrainians do not come that way, ”says Neil Melvin, an analyst at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), a London-based defense and security think tank.

Ukrainian forces insist that the actions of the Russian Volunteer Corps and the Russian Freedom Legion respond to a domestically garnered Russian struggle.

But those movements were established during the full-scale invasion of Russia and have attracted volunteers who say they are fighting their own country to topple the Kremlin leader, who has been in power for more than 20 years.

While the two organizations are made up of anti-Kremlin Russians ranging from liberals and anarchists to neo-Nazis, analysts also say they are acting in collaboration with kyiv.

“They hope that they can somehow contribute to the downfall of the Putin regime, but at the same time we must realize that these are not independent forces. They are controlled by Ukrainian military intelligence,” said Mark Galeotti, head of London-based intelligence consultancy Mayak and author of several books on the Russian military.

The incursion in Belgorod would correspond to an operation to “shape” the Ukrainian battlefield before the planned counteroffensive by its Armed Forces.

“This is really an opportunity to do two things. One is to make the Russians uneasy, to make them worry about the possibility of uprisings among their own people. But secondly, to force the Russians to disperse their troops,” Galeotti remarked.

A report by ‘The New York Times’, which cited senior Ukrainian commanders, highlights that so far no Ukrainian soldier has entered Russian soil, but that the Kiev Army played an auxiliary role in the incursion on May 22, protecting the border with the region in case of a Russian counterattack.

In addition, according to images verified by the US newspaper, Russian anti-government armed groups used at least three US-made armored vehicles during their raid on Belgorod.

While the assaults in the southern region of Russia are repeated, the operations would serve to raise the morale of the forces of the invaded nation and take advantage of the spaces that the invaders would leave within Ukrainian territory to counterattack.

With Reuters, AP and local media