Who is behind the attack in Russia’s Belgorod region by armed fighters from Ukraine? The operation has so far been claimed on a Telegram channel which presents itself as belonging to the “Freedom Legion for Russia”, a group of Russians fighting on the Ukrainian side, which had already claimed to be at the origin of other attacks. in the same region.
“The time has come to put an end to the Kremlin dictatorship”, declared in a video broadcast by this channel a man who had been presented to AFP in December as “Caesar”, spokesman for the group, identified by media as a former Russian neo-Nazi who crossed over to the Ukrainian side in 2014. According to the channel, the group “completely liberated” the village of Kozinka and attacked a second locality, the capital of Gaïvoron. These claims were not independently verifiable.
Vladimir Putin has been informed of the situation, said his spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who considered it an attempt by kyiv to “distract attention” from the fall of Bakhmout. Ukraine has for its part denied, as it does every time, any involvement in actions on Russian territory.