Russian residents of Belgorod are complaining that Kremlin forces have placed Grad rocket units in the midst of residential neighborhoods in hopes it will deter Ukrainian forces from shelling them there. At the same time, local authorities are now preventing civilians from evacuating because the Kremlin wants them to vote in this weekend's foreordained Putin re-election. JL
Kaitlin Lewis reports in Newsweek and Kateryna Zakharchenko reports in the Kyiv Post:
Russia's Air Force has bombed its own territory near the border with Ukraine amid a multi-pronged incursion by anti-Putin Russians. And the Freedom of Russia Legion (LSR) shared on Thursday a drone camera video showing the destruction of ammunition depots in the Kursk region where its fighters attacked. The warehouses were in the village of Tetkino in southwestern Russia. Civilians in Belgorod complain that the Russian military has deployed military equipment in residential areas and is opening fire from there. Belgorod authorities are noe blocking the evacuation of Russian civilians to keep people in the region to participate in the election which runs from March 15-17.A pro-Ukrainian Russian militia unit said Thursday that its fighters destroyed two of Moscow's ammunition warehouses in Russia's Kursk region near the Ukrainian border.
The Freedom of Russia Legion (LSR), a volunteer militia group that is fighting alongside Ukrainians in the war with Russia, shared on Thursday a video to its social accounts showing the moment that a drone camera captured the destruction of the ammunition depots. The group said the warehouses were in the village of Tetkino in southwestern Russia.
Russia's Air Force has bombed its own territory near the border with Ukraine amid a multi-pronged incursion by Russian defectors serving with the Ukrainian Armed Forces, a video appears to show.
Andriy Tsaplienko, a Ukrainian journalist, shared a video of an explosion on Friday after the Freedom of Russia Legion, Siberian Battalion and the Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK)—three Ukraine-aligned volunteer military units—on Tuesday launched a crossborder raid into Russia's southern Belgorod and Kursk regions.
"While Putin's army is destroying civilian homes, Legion artillerymen destroyed 2 ammunition depots of Putin's combat in Tetkino at once," the LSR wrote in a post alongside the video on X (formerly Twitter). "It burns beautifully."
The LSR is one of several Russian volunteer paramilitary units fighting on behalf of the Ukrainians against Moscow's troops. The group said on Tuesday that its fighters, along with members of the Russian Volunteer Corps militia group, had entered Russian territory through the Belgorod and Kursk regions in armored vehicles. In the online message, the LSR said it was "on the attack."
The LSR also claimed full control of the village of Tyotkino on Tuesday, although Newsweek was unable to independently verify the claim. Russia's Defense Ministry said earlier that day that it had fended off attacks from "Ukrainian terrorist groups" in the region.
Civilians in Russia’s Belgorod region complain that they cannot sleep at night because the Russian military has deployed military equipment in residential areas and is opening fire from there.
In an intercepted call released by Ukraine’s Military Intelligence Directorate (HUR) on Thursday, March 14, a woman living in the Belgorod region revealed that the Russian authorities had placed BM-21 122mm Grad MLRS launchers at a street intersection near her home in a residential neighborhood.
“They destroyed half of Gorkovsky, a village in the Hraivoronsky district of the Belgorod region, they say. And now they’re still doing it,” the woman says in a phone conversation.
“They decided to put Grads at the intersection near Kirpichne. It’s so loud, it’s like a f*cking nightmare at the junction.”
AdvertisementThe woman adds that she could not sleep all night because of the constant firing.
“And me, too, I didn’t sleep a wink tonight, all night long. It’s a nightmare!”
Fighting between pro-Ukrainian Russian “freedom fighters” and the Kremlin’s troops is continuing in Russia's Belgorod region.
Pro-Ukrainian groups such as the Russian Volunteer Corps (RVC), the Russian Freedom Legion (LSR), and the Siberia Battalion are taking part in fighting close to the Ukrainian border.
The combat action began on Tuesday, March 12, after an advance the Russian volunteers said they had been planning for months to coincide with Putin's “fake elections.”
A source from HUR told the Kyiv Post on Thursday, that Belgorod authorities are blocking the evacuation of Russian civilians to keep people in the region to participate in the election which runs from March 15-17.
According to the source, train stations are blocked off for people trying to leave Belgorod, saying “If there were an evacuation, there would be no election.”
The ballot, according to the volunteer groups now fighting in Belgorod, is only a show “election intended to rubber-stamp President Vladimir Putin’s continued rule.”
One of LSR's volunteers, Alexei Baranovsky, told Newsweek earlier this week that the militias' attack on Russian territory was a surprise to President Vladimir Putin's soldiers, who "did not expect these breakthroughs in two separate regions simultaneously, so let's see how this situation unfolds."
Baranovsky added that the rebels' ultimate goal was to eventually "march on Moscow" and achieve "the ensuing liberation of Russia from Putin."
"We may not be able to pull it off now, but that is our overarching mission," he said.
The recent string of attacks on Russian territory come just days ahead of the country's next presidential election, in which Putin is certain to win reelection. Baranovsky told Newsweek that launching attacks ahead of the federal election was timely.
While the militias "may not be able to stop the federal election," he said, the groups "can disrupt the regional votes, so we are doing what we can by bringing this 'air of freedom' to at least some parts of the country."
Cross-border attacks are not new along Russia's shared border with Ukraine. Several raids were launched on the Belgorod region in 2023, and Baranovsky told Newsweek last summer that such attacks were proof that Putin's military is stretched thin.
"The reaction of the Russian government and the armed forces on the rebel invasion to the Belgorod region was not weak," he said in June 2023. "On the contrary, Putin's army is trying its best."
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