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A rare cross-border attack in southern Russia by anti-Kremlin fighters aligned with Ukraine entered a second day on Tuesday, with reports of explosions at defense factories and clashes at crossroads, in one of the most brazen attacks on Russian territory. since the war.
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Tuesday that it had repelled all pro-Ukrainian fighters on the border of the Belgorod region and that many “saboteurs” had been killed. The claims could not be verified, and those representing anti-Kremlin fighters claimed that the attacks were continuing.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitri S. Peskov described the attackers as “Ukrainian militants” whose violence justified Moscow’s war on its neighbors. “This once again confirms that Ukrainian militants continue to fight against our country,” Mr Peskov told reporters on Tuesday.
As the raid began on Monday, smoke could be seen billowing from the explosion, according to drone video verified by The New York Times. Another video shows Ukrainian-marked soldiers and armored vehicles about three miles into Russian territory. In Bryansk, Russia’s northern border region, a military factory warehouse near the town of Dyatkovo caught fire on Tuesday, local media reported.
Some pro-Russian analysts fear the attack opens new war problems for Moscow.
Ukraine has denied direct involvement in the attack, making the border attack a sign of internal divisions within Russia. Ukraine’s deputy defense minister, Hanna Maliar, described the fighters as “Russian patriots” rebelling against the government of President Vladimir V. Putin.
A group called the Free Russia Legion, made up of Russians who have taken up arms for Ukraine, has claimed responsibility for taking the war into Russian territory. The volunteer unit operates under the umbrella of the Ukrainian International Legion, a force overseen by Ukrainian officers.
Ilya Ponomarev, an exiled former member of the Russian Parliament who described himself as a political representative of the legion, said by phone on Tuesday that the attack was an attempt to force Moscow’s military to divert troops fighting in Ukraine and undermine Putin’s government. by demonstrating its inability to defend its border with Ukraine.
“We think now we should reconsider and deploy more troops on the Ukrainian border,” Mr. Ponomarev said. He added that the group arrested about a dozen Russian border guards, a claim that could not be verified.
He also said that Ukrainian officers were aware of the operation but did not direct it.
A senior Ukrainian official said the Ukrainian military was acting to support cross-border fighters and protect Ukraine’s border in the event of a Russian counterattack. The official, who spoke anonymously to reveal details about the mission in Russia, said no Ukrainian fighters had entered Russian territory.
Andriy Zagorodnyuk, a former Ukrainian defense minister who now advises the Kyiv government, said the border raid was a milestone because it involved armed forces, which could force Russia to send more troops to the border than to the front line.
“Russia will see that they have problems among their own citizens, so the idea of a unified Russia is completely destroyed,” Mr. Zagorodnyuk said.
British defense intelligence agency statement it was confirmed that fighting has a “high probability” of breaking out in three locations in the Belgorod region. It noted small arms fire and drone strikes near Grayvoron, about six miles from the border, and said the Russians had evacuated several villages.
Russia, he said, faces a growing security threat along the border with “the loss of fighter jets, improvised explosive device attacks on rail lines, and now outright partisan action.” It also said that Moscow would use the attack to “support the official narrative that it is a victim of war.”
On Monday, the Free Russian Legion said it had “liberated” the border village of Kozinka with another pro-Ukraine group called the Russian Volunteer Corps. The claim could not be confirmed.
On Tuesday, Aleksey Baranovsky, a spokesman for the political wing of the Free Russian Legion, said the fighters had seized two more villages, Gorkovsky and Shchetinovka, and controlled about 7.7 square miles of Russia. That claim also cannot be confirmed.
A senior Ukrainian official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the events of the war acknowledged that the Free Russian Legion had suffered losses.
It is not the first time that pro-Ukrainian fighters have attacked villages across the Russian border. In March, Russia’s Volunteer Corps said it had raided villages in Russia’s Bryansk region, and the Kremlin’s Security Council called an emergency session. The corps is led by Russian nationalists in exile and is part of a motley collection of Russians opposed to Mr Putin’s rule.
While residents of the Belgorod region have long lived with the sounds and explosions of war, the attack could increase fear in Russia and reduce Mr. Putin’s popularity, said Ivan Fomin, a Russia analyst with the Washington-based Center for European Policy Analysis. .
“Some of the more hawkish parts of Russian society will see the attack as another sign of the Kremlin’s weakness and incompetence,” he said. “So Putin could potentially lose popularity among those who support the war.”
But raids can also have a rally-round-the-flag effect, he said.
“If they can describe the infiltration of Russian territory by sabotage groups from Ukraine,” Mr. Fomin said, “it might be easier for them to sell the narrative about Russia being attacked and defending itself.”
Igor Girkin, a Russian military blogger who is also known as Igor Strelkov, wrote that the news about the border attack is true, “then create a continuous front along this border, which must be filled from anywhere with combined arms units and formations of the Army Arming Russia, is on the agenda.
Placing more soldiers on the border would stretch Russian forces even thinner and would benefit Ukraine, he concluded.
Even before Monday’s attack, Belgorod residents had shared a video, the location of which could not be independently confirmed, calling on the Russian government to take action against the attack.
A man standing in front and reading from a newspaper said, “We fully understand that before the attack led by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, our forces will not fully protect us. The front line is too big.”
When the offensive began on Monday, the Russian governor of Belgorod, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said Moscow’s military, border services and intelligence agencies were “taking the necessary measures to eliminate the enemy.”
Mr. Gladkov placed the region on a counterterrorism footing, establishing temporary restrictions on movement and suspending activities involving dangerous substances.
He said the area had been shelled 15 times on Tuesday morning and a civilian had been killed. He then lifted counterterrorism measures.
Images and videos verified by The Times show that pro-Ukraine fighters have used at least three American-made armored vehicles in their attack on Russia on Monday. It is unclear how they gained access to the American equipment. Russian forces seized at least two vehicles, visual evidence showed.
Matthew Miller, a State Department spokesman, said, “We have doubts at this time about the validity of the report.” He added that the United States does not “support or enable attacks on Russia.”
The Russian border in the area is surrounded by mines, ditches and barriers. Since the war began, authorities have spent approximately $125 million to strengthen the defenses of the Belgorod region, according to a statement by the regional construction minister in February.
But Russia, which claimed a significant military victory this week in the devastated city of Bakhmut after nine months of fighting, has suffered several blows during the war. These included the explosion that destroyed the bridge linking occupied Crimea to the Russian mainland and the sinking of the cruiser Moskva, the flagship of the Black Sea fleet.
Yuriy Karin, an analyst with a group that opposes Russian propaganda, said that after years of Russia resisting military intervention in eastern Ukraine, Ukraine may now do the same in southern Russia.
“It is a mirror of the situation created by Russia in Crimea and Donbas” in 2014, when Russia sent in soldiers with unmarked uniforms and the Kremlin denied any affiliation with the fighters, Mr. Karin said.
This reporting was contributed by Oleksandr Chubko, Milan Mazaeva, Oleg Matsnev, Oleksandr Chubko, Julian E. Barnes, Riley Mellen, Christoph Koettl and Dmitry Khavin.
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