Attack on Russian territory was carried out by defectors, says Kremlin

Russia has said it is fighting a group of saboteurs that crossed into its territory from Ukraine. State media Tass quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying Russian forces were working to expel the “sabotage and reconnaissance group” that had entered the Belgorod region on the border with Ukraine.

Regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said in Telegram: “The armed forces of the Russian Federation, together with the border service, the National Guard and the FSB, are taking the necessary measures to eliminate the enemy.”

A group of Russian defectors called the “Russian Freedom Legion” claimed on Telegram that it and the “Russian Volunteer Corps” were behind the Belgorod attack. They said that they had “fully liberated the Kozinka settlement from the Belgorod region” while “the first groups entered Grayvoron”.

Aleksey Baranovsky, a representative of the Kiev-based Political Center of the Russian Armed Opposition – the political wing of Russia’s Legion of Freedom – told CNN that the operation started last night and that fighting was “ongoing”. He did not specify the number of fighters who crossed into Russia.

Baranovsky said the group wanted to “free our homeland from Putin’s tyranny”. A CNN interviewed members of Russia’s Freedom Legion fighting for Ukraine in its eastern region of Donetsk in December.

A Ukrainian defense intelligence officer previously told CNN that Russian citizens were “part of the defense and security forces in Ukraine, but said: ‘In Russia, they are acting as independent entities.

Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to Ukraine’s presidential administration, said on Twitter that Ukraine “has nothing to do with this”.

“#Ukraine is watching the events in the #Belgorod region of #Russia with interest and studying the situation, but it has nothing to do with this,” said Podolyak. “As you know, tanks are sold in any Russian military store and underground guerrilla groups are made up of Russian citizens.”