Russian news agencies cite a report from the Defense Ministry, which today, Friday, reported that a group of Chechen special forces “Ahmed” struck near the city of Maryinka in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.
For its part, a group of pro-Ukrainian forces said today, Friday, that they were fighting Russian troops on the outskirts of a village located inside Russia’s western borders, a day after Moscow announced it had repelled three attacks on the border.
The attacks follow a major invasion of the Belgorod region in western Russia on May 22-23 and increased cross-border shelling in the past few weeks as Ukraine prepares to launch a major counteroffensive to retake Russian-held territories to the east and south.
“Now there are fights on the outskirts of the village of Novaya Tavolganka (Belgorod region). Unfortunately, the fighters are wounded, but freedom is won with blood,” the Russian Freedom Corps said in a statement.
The group claims that its membership includes Russians fighting the government of President Vladimir Putin in an attempt to create a country that, as they put it, will become part of the “free world”.
The group, along with the Russian Volunteer Corps, which was founded by a far-right Russian nationalist, say they are carrying out the attacks according to their own plan, and not on the orders of Ukraine, which denies any involvement.
Russia describes the two groups as “terrorists” fighting by proxy for Kyiv.
This was announced by the governor of the Belgorod region that two women were killed and two were injured as a result of Ukrainian shelling today, on Friday.
According to a message on the Telegram app, the Russian Freedom Corps blamed Moscow for the bombing. And he published photographs, according to him, of one of her tanks in the village of Novaya Tavolganka, and in the pictures soldiers are hiding behind a wall during a firefight.
The group stated: “In the area of Tavolganka, the enemy destroyed a Renault car with civilians in it, thinking that it belonged to our group. At least two civilians have died, and this is a direct result of the incompetence of Putin’s army.”
Aleksey Baranovsky, a spokesman for Russia’s Freedom Corps political wing, told Reuters that the cross-border attacks are intended to disperse Russian defenses and force Moscow to withdraw forces from Ukraine to strengthen the border.
“One of our tactical goals is to bring in Russian forces from other parts of the Ukrainian front,” he said in an interview in Warsaw on Thursday.
He said: “This is one goal, and the other is to show the Russians that it is possible to create another state and that an armed group has appeared ready to fight for freedom. We want people to join us.”
