On Wednesday, commanders of anti-Kremlin armed groups held a news conference in northern Ukraine after staging attacks in Russia. The cross-border raid appeared intended to force Moscow to divert its soldiers from the battlefield and to embarrass President Vladimir V. Putin’s government by showing Russia’s vulnerability. The raid prompted a warning from the leader of Russia’s largest mercenary force, who said his country faced further military setbacks unless its ruling elite took drastic measures to win the war.
The raiders, a motley group of Russian exiles who have been fighting on the Ukrainian side in the war, said they had consulted with the Ukrainians but that the Ukrainian military had not crossed into Russia. The fighters were buoyant and mocked the Russian response to the raid, saying it was slow, panicked, and disorganized.
The Kremlin, eager to discredit the renegade Russians, dismissed them as neo-fascists. Sergei K. Shoigu, Russia’s minister of defense, called the cross-border attack a terrorist act and warned of a harsh response. Analysts of Russian politics said that the attack might stir discontent over incompetence in the military among pro-war groups, but that it could also offer Mr. Putin an opportunity to try to rally people around the flag.