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Clashes broke out on Monday in a Russian village near the Ukrainian border, according to local officials and verified video. A Russian regional governor said a Ukrainian sabotage group had crossed into Russian territory, while Kyiv said anti-Kremlin Russian partisans were behind the attack.
A video posted to the Telegram messaging app and verified by The New York Times shows smoke rising from near the border in Grayvoron, north of the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. It was not possible to immediately determine the cause.
The regional governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said that a Ukrainian sabotage group had entered Russian territory near the city of Belgorod on Monday morning and that the Russian military, border services, and intelligence agencies were “taking the necessary measures to eliminate the enemy.” On Monday afternoon, Mr. Gladkov announced that he placed the region on a counterterrorism stage, establishing a temporary ban on movement and suspending activities involving hazardous materials.
The Ukrainian government usually follows a policy of deliberate ambiguity regarding attacks on Russian territory. On Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, said Kyiv was watching the event in Belgorod. “With interest and learning about the situation, but it has nothing to do with it.”
Ukraine’s military intelligence agency said the perpetrators were “opposition-minded Russian citizens.” Andrii Yusov, a representative of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, told the Ukrainian news outlet Hromadske that Russian partisans were used to create “certain security zones in the border areas of Russia bordering Ukraine.”
A group calling itself the Free Russian Legion claimed to be behind the attack. The group said its ranks included Russians and called on citizens of the same country to join its efforts. The group later said it “liberated” the border village of Kozinka along with another pro-Ukrainian group known as the Russian Volunteer Corps. These claims cannot be independently confirmed.
Fighting took place Monday evening in several locations between the border and the town of Grayvoron, six miles away, according to a report published in the Telegram
Mr. Gladkov first played down reports of violence at the border, saying there was a “massive information attack” underway, and sought to calm the nerves of residents in a video posted Friday morning. He later said at least two people were injured.
The Kremlin also sought to play down the incident, with spokesman Dmitri S. Peskov telling the TASS news agency that it was an attempt by Ukraine to “distract attention from the situation” in Bakhmut, an eastern town claimed by Russian forces over the weekend. taken after nearly a year of war.
It is not the first time pro-Ukrainian fighters have attacked a village across the Russian border. In early March, the Russian Volunteer Corps claimed to have carried out a brief attack on villages in Bryansk, another Russian region on the Ukrainian border. The Russian Volunteer Corps is led by Russian nationalists in exile, and is part of a motley crew of groups of Russian citizens who oppose Mr. Putin’s rule and have taken up arms for the Ukrainian cause during the 15-month war.
Oleksandr Chubko contribute reports.
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