Pro-Ukraine Militias Stage Attack On Russian Border Regions

Pro-Ukrainian militias on Tuesday staged a brazen cross-border attack on Russia, hours after Kyiv launched one of its largest drone attacks since the start of the war.

Groups of pro-Kyiv volunteer fighters, made up of Russians who oppose the Kremlin, said that they had broken into the Kursk and Belgorod regions, while Moscow said it had foiled multiple Ukrainian attempts to infiltrate the border.

"We crossed the border," the Freedom of Russia legion, a militia that claims to be made up of Russian citizens fighting on behalf of Ukraine, said it a post on Telegram.

It published a video from a drone that claimed to show the vehicle being blown up and fighters on the streets of the village of Tyotkino, on the border between Russia and Ukraine.

Moscow said it had fought off multiple attacks.

"At about 3 am (0000 GMT), Ukrainian terrorist groups, after intensive shelling of civilian sites, tried to invade Russian territory in three directions," Russia's defence ministry said.

"All the Ukrainian attacks were repelled. The enemy was hit by aircraft, rockets and artillery," it added.

Another attack at 8 am (0500 GMT) at Tyotkino was also foiled, it added.

Ukraine-based militias -- made up of Russian citizens who oppose Moscow's invasion and have taken up arms on the side of Kyiv -- have claimed to be behind previous armed incursions into Russian territory.

A spokesman for the Freedom of Russia legion said fighting was ongoing as of 1:15 pm (1015 GMT), while Russia's defence ministry said it thwarted the last attack at 8:25 am (0525 GMT).

Kursk Governor Roman Starovoyt said a shoot-out in his region had taken place, but a full-scale incursion had been thwarted.

The Belgorod region also came under a series of drone attacks on Tuesday, the regional governor said.

Russia's FSB said that since Sunday it had repelled a number of attempted cross-border attacks in the Belgorod and Kursk regions, in a statement cited by Russian state media.

Another pro-Kyiv paramilitary group, the Russian Volunteer Corps, posted night-vision video on Tuesday purporting to show its troops engaged in a firefight.

A spokesman for Ukraine's military intelligence, Andriy Yusov, said that the Russian volunteer groups were not acting under orders from Kyiv by launching the assault.

But he added that the attacks showed "the Kremlin is once again not in control of the situation in Russia."

The Russian Volunteer Corps and the Freedom of Russia Legion said they conducted a string of raids into the Belgorod region in May and June 2023, claiming to have taken temporary control of several settlements after breaking through a border checkpoint.

In March last year, Russia launched a wave of retaliatory missile strikes on Ukraine after it said a sabotage group killed civilians in the Bryansk border region.

A spokesperson for the political wing of the Freedom of Russia Legion told AFP on Tuesday the attack was timed to coincide with Russia's March 15-17 presidential elections.

"This is not an election at all. It is the next stage of a usurpation of power, the formation of Putin's dictatorship under the guise of elections," spokesman Alexei Baranovsky said.

The cross-border attack came as Kyiv launched one of its most significant drone strikes on Russia so far in the two-year war.

Two Russian energy sites, including one of the country's largest oil refineries some 800 kilometres (500 miles) from the border, were hit overnight, Russian officials said.

Ukraine has claimed responsibility for a wave of drone strikes and blasts at Russian energy sites in recent months, justifying the attacks as legitimate targeting of infrastructure sites used to fuel the invasion.

A major oil refinery in Kstovo, just outside the city of Nizhny Novgorod, was attacked by drones early on Tuesday morning, the regional governor said.

Russia's Lukoil energy giant, which owns the refinery, said it had "temporarily suspended" operations there after an unspecified "incident".

On its website, Lukoil describes the facility as "one of the leading oil refineries in Russia" with an annual capacity of 17 million tonnes.

Another drone crashed into a fuel depot and ignited a fire in Oryol, around 160 kilometres from the border, according to the regional governor.

Also on Tuesday, Russia's state news agencies cited the defence ministry as saying a Russian Il-76 military transport plane with 15 on board had crashed in the Ivanovo region, around 200 kilometres (125 miles) east of Moscow, after an engine fire.