(Kiev) – Russian volunteers fighting for Ukraine said they infiltrated Russia on Tuesday to carry out ground attacks against border areas, which the Russian military claimed to have repelled, following Ukrainian drone strikes on multiple regions.
These attacks come three days before the start of the Russian presidential elections, which are supposed to witness the victory of Vladimir Putin, in the absence of any opposition.
“We have crossed the border,” the unit called the Russian Freedom Corps said in the morning on the Telegram app, posting a video in which we can see three armored vehicles driving in the dark on a country road.
Shortly after, the unit claimed to have “destroyed” a Russian armored vehicle in the village of Tyutkino in the Kursk region of eastern Ukraine.
The Russian army announced that it repelled multiple attacks from Ukraine during the night and morning, stressing that it prevented any penetration into Russian territory.
The Ministry of Defense said that the armed forces “thwarted an attempt by the Kiev regime to achieve a breakthrough into Russian territory in the Belgorod and Kursk regions.”
The governor of Russia's Kursk region, Roman Starovoit, confirmed the attack and reported a minor injury, but denied any “penetration” by the attackers.
One unit, called the Sibir Battalion, spoke of “heavy fighting” in Russia and called on Russians to “ignore the presidential elections” scheduled for March 15, 16 and 17.
“We can only change things for the better with weapons in our hands,” she said, describing the vote as a fantasy.
This armed incursion comes after a major attack by a Ukrainian drone in Russia during the night from Monday to Tuesday, especially on two energy sites destroyed by fires, one of which is located hundreds of kilometers from the front.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed on Tuesday that the Russian army is doing “what is necessary” to combat all Ukrainian attacks.
Facing a two-year Russian invasion, Kiev regularly attacks Russian regions using drones, but Ukrainian incursions led by Russian citizens are very rare.
Ukraine, which has been subjected to attacks by Russian missiles, rocket-propelled grenades and drones every day for more than two years, regularly responds.
800 km from Ukraine
According to Russian authorities, Ukrainian drones specifically targeted Orel and Kostovo, two Russian towns located about 160 kilometers and 800 kilometers respectively from the Ukrainian border, setting fire to energy depots there.
The Russian Ministry of Defense claimed that it shot down 25 Ukrainian aircraft in the Moscow region (2), Leningrad (1), as well as in Belgorod (11), Kursk (11), and Bryansk (1). Three borders of Ukraine.
In the Kustovo industrial area in the Russian Nizhny Novgorod region, an oil refinery caught fire, according to the governor of the region, Gleb Nikitin. The fire was then brought under control, the state-run TASS agency reported.
The refinery belongs to the giant Russian oil company Lukoil, one of the largest fuel production companies in Russia, according to information available on its official website.
The governor of the Oryol region, Andrei Klychkov, also announced that a fuel complex had been attacked and that firefighters were also “at the scene.”
According to an emergency services official quoted by RIA Novosti, a tank containing petroleum products caught fire.
At 3 a.m. ET (10 a.m. local time), Mr. Klychkov confirmed that the fire had been contained and that “the situation was completely under control.”
Blackouts
Ukrainian drones also attacked the Russian Belgorod region, bordering Ukraine, on Monday night into Tuesday, without causing casualties, but they damaged a power line and deprived seven municipalities of electricity, according to the region’s governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov.
The Belgorod region was also the target of Ukrainian strikes on the Grayvoron district and the town of Chebykino on Tuesday morning, where a woman was injured, according to Mr. Gladkov.
A drone was shot down on Tuesday morning in Kirishi, in the Leningrad region, located near St. Petersburg, several hundred kilometers from Ukraine, according to local governor Alexander Drozdenko.
Finally, the Ukrainian Navy claimed responsibility on Tuesday for the destruction of a Russian “command post” mounted on an oil tanker stranded on the Kinburn Isthmus in the Black Sea, near the mouth of the Dnipro River. The ship served as a “launching pad” for small drones in the Kherson region, the Navy said.
Since last summer, the Ukrainian military has increased drone attacks against Russia, striking deeper and deeper. Although most devices are shot down, targets, especially energy and industrial, are regularly hit.
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