Anti-Kremlin fighters aligned with Ukraine launched a rare cross-border assault into southern Russia on Monday, with reports of an explosion at a defense factory and skirmishes at a crossing. Russia’s Ministry of Defense said it had pushed back all of the pro-Ukrainian fighters across the border from the region of Belgorod and that scores of “saboteurs” had been killed. Ukraine has denied any direct involvement in the incursions, casting the border attacks as a sign of internal division in Russia.
The Free Russia Legion, made up of Russians who have taken up arms for Ukraine, claimed responsibility for taking the war to Russian territory. The volunteer unit operates under the umbrella of Ukraine’s International Legion, forces overseen by Ukrainian officers. A group of pro-Russian analysts feared that the attacks opened a new set of battlefield problems for Moscow.
The incursions could deepen fear in Russia and dent President Vladimir V. Putin’s popularity, said Ivan Fomin, a Russian analyst with the Washington-based Center for European Policy Analysis. But the incursion could also have a rally-round-the-flag effect, he said. A British defense intelligence agency statement confirmed that fighting had “highly likely” broken out in three locations in the Belgorod region.
Russia faces a growing security threat on the border with “losses of combat aircraft, improvised explosive device attacks on rail lines, and now direct partisan action,” the statement said. It also said Moscow would most likely use the attacks to “support the official narrative that it is the victim in the war.”