Russian pro-Ukraine fighters attack border regions in Russia

Russian volunteers fighting for Ukraine said they infiltrated Russia on Tuesday and took control of a border village, an incursion that the army of Moscow assuredé having pushed back.

Ukraine has also increased drone attacks. These offensives come three days before the start of the Russian presidential election, which should see Vladimir Putin triumph, in the absence of any opposition.

“The village of Tiotkino, in the Kursk region, is entirely controlled by the Russian liberation forces”, assured on Telegram the fighters of a unit called the Freedom Legion of Russia, which has already been at the origin of previous armed incursions.

These fighters, who say they are Russian, announced in the morning that they had crossed the Russian border from Ukraine, publishing a video in which we can see three armored vehicles driving in the dark on a country lane.

The unit claimed to have “destroyed” a Russian armored vehicle in Tiotkino and that Moscow's forces “quickly left” the village, leaving heavy weapons behind.

The Russian army, for its part, declared that it had repelled multiple attacks from Ukraine during the night and morning, ensuring that it had prevented any breakthrough into Russian territory.

The Russian governor of the Kursk region, Roman Starovoit, confirmed the attack and reported a slight injury, however he also denied any “breakthrough” by the attackers.

The regional authorities, however, ordered the closure of schools in the city of Kursk “due to recent events”, indicated Mayor Igor Koutsak.

– A 800 km from Ukraine –

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov on January 24, 2024 in Moscow © POOL – Mikhail METZEL

This armed incursion comes after a major Ukrainian drone attack in Russia during the night from Monday to Tuesday, notably on two energy sites which were ravaged by fires, one of which was hundreds of kilometers away from the front.

A drone also crashed during the day on Tuesday on the town hall of Belgorod, a town close to Ukraine and regularly targeted, and another on the roof of a shopping center, without causing any casualties, according to Governor Viatcheslav Gladkov .

A woman had previously been injured in the Belgorod region in Ukrainian strikes, according to the same source.

The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitri Peskov, assured Tuesday that the Russian military was doing “what is necessary” to fight against all Ukrainian attacks.

Confronted for more of two years of daily bombings, kyiv regularly responds by striking border regions using artillery or drones. Land incursions remain rare.

According to the Russian authorities, Ukrainian drones particularly targeted Orel (Orel region) and Kstovo (Nizhni-Novgorod region), two Russian cities located respectively some 160 km and 800 km from the Ukrainian border, setting fire to depots there. energy.

Ukraine: positions of military forces © AFP – Valentin RAKOVSKY, Sophie RAMIS, Sylvie HUSSON

The Russian Defense Ministry said it had shot down Ukrainian aircraft over the Moscow, Leningrad, Belgorod, Kursk and Bryansk regions.

– Village captured in the East –

On the front in Ukraine, Russian forces claimed to continue their advance with the capture of the village of Nevelské, in the East , near the city of Donetsk which is already under Russian control.

Servicemen transport a drone to a training ground in the kyiv region, February 23, 2024 © AFP – Genya SAVILOV

This claim comes the day after optimistic remarks from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who assured that his soldiers had “stopped” the Russian advance, and that the situation was currently “much better” on the front than 'three months ago.

The Ukrainian navy for its part claimed Tuesday the destruction of a Russian “command post” installed on an oil tanker stranded on the Isthmus of Kinbourn, in the Black Sea, near the estuary of the Dnipro River. The ship also served as a “launch platform” for small drones in the Kherson region, the navy said.

Russian forces have been nibbling away at ground for weeks in eastern Ukraine, notably with the fall of the fortress town of Avdiïvka, taken by Moscow in mid-February.

Ukraine s is engaged in the construction of hundreds of kilometers of defensive fortifications to stop the Russian advance, but criticism has emerged of their weakness, or even their absence in certain areas.

And the Ukrainian army is faced with slow Western aid, in particular that from the United States which has been blocked for months by President Joe Biden's Republican rivals.

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