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Pro-Ukraine fighters are believed to have used US-made armored vehicles in one of the largest raids on the Russian border, according to images and videos verified by the New York Times.
At least three US-made MRAPs (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles) were used in the attacks in Russia’s Belgorod Oblast, two of which were captured by Russian forces, according to the report.
One civilian was killed following attacks by two suspected anti-Kremlin armed groups employing Russians based abroad.
Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the Belgorod region, said the evacuation of nine Russian villages in the Belgorod region has begun as an anti-terrorist operation continues in full force.
“Don’t go back to your homes yet,” he told local residents who had been evacuated on Monday.
The US State Department denied it would “encourage or allow attacks inside Russia”, but said it was “up to Ukraine to decide how to conduct this war”.
Russia has said its forces crushed the attack, killing more than 70 “Ukrainian nationalists” and pushing the rest into Ukraine.
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Anti-Russian fighters using US-made armored vehicles for raid on Russia – Report
Anti-Russian fighters appeared to have used US-made armored vehicles in the raid in Belgorod Oblast, according to images and videos verified by the New York Times.
At least three of these US-made vehicles were used with two of those captured by Russian forces.
The group behind the raid that has prompted evacuations in Belgorod used MRAPs, known as mine-resistant ambush protected, which were first built by US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and Washington n ‘sent several to Ukraine.
The two groups that have claimed responsibility for the raid are the Russian Freedom Legion – a Russian militia based in Ukraine led by Russian opposition figure Ilya Ponomarev who says it is working inside Russia to topple Vladimir Putin – and the Russian Volunteer Corps (RVC). .
One of the photos of a seized MRAP showed a Russian soldier standing next to a vehicle that had a white spray-painted marking of an arrow pointing up. A vehicle with a similar symbol was seen on video just hours before the raid in Russia.
Shweta SharmaMay 24, 2023 04:30
Russia will achieve the goals of its operation in Ukraine by any means, the Kremlin says
Russia has ruled out freezing the Ukrainian conflict, saying it will pursue its goals through a special military operation or other available means, Kremlin spokesmen said.
“Russia only takes into account the completion of its special military operation: securing its interests, achieving Russia’s goals, either through the special military operation or by other available means,” Dmitry Peskov told TASS.
Regarding the reconciliation plans presented by other countries, he said: “It is too early to talk about it. There is no prerequisite for a peace process yet, obviously.”
He added that negotiations are “hardly possible, because any negotiations with Russia are prohibited [in Ukraine]”.
Shweta SharmaMay 24, 2023 06:15
Russia scrambled fighter jets after intercepting two US Air Force strategic bombers over Baltic
Russia said it scrambled an Su-27 fighter jet after it intercepted two US Air Force strategic bombers flying over the Baltic Sea last night.
“After withdrawing the foreign military aircraft from the border of the Russian state, the Russian fighter returned to its air base,” the Russian defense ministry said.
The Russian military flew its plane to “avoid violations of the state border,” adding that “the flight of the Russian fighter was carried out in strict accordance with international rules for the use of “airspace”.
Confirming that the US planes were intercepted by Russia, Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Pat Ryder said the B-1 bombers were taking part in a “long-planned exercise in Europe”.
Shweta SharmaMay 24, 2023 06:00
Russia says its military “crushed” the Ukrainian incursion
Russia said it had crushed one of Ukraine’s largest incursions, including several armored vehicles, into its border region.
In what appeared to be one of Ukraine’s biggest incursions since the war began 15 months ago, two suspected anti-Kremlin armed groups employing Russians based abroad said they were responsible for the attack in the Russian region of Belgorod.
The Russian Defense Ministry, which blamed Ukrainian authorities, said its forces had surrounded the enemy fighters and defeated them with “air strikes, artillery fire and active action by border units”.
“The remnants of the nationalists were pushed back into Ukrainian territory, where they continued to be hit by gunfire until they were completely eliminated,” the ministry said.
The regional governor of Belgorod said a civilian had been killed “at the hands of the Ukrainian armed forces”.
Shweta SharmaMay 24, 2023 05:45
Russia moved to sign bilateral agreements with China amid Western criticism
Russia’s prime minister is visiting Beijing to sign a raft of bilateral deals with China on Wednesday in a show of their “boundless” partnership amid the war in Ukraine.
Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin – the highest-ranking Russian official to visit Beijing since Moscow sent thousands of its troops to Ukraine in February 2022 – was holding talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang, according to the Russian government.
“As a result of the talks, a number of bilateral agreements are planned to be signed,” Russian news agency Interfax reported, without giving further details.
It comes as Russia and China furiously objected to the G7 statement that singled them out on a range of issues, including Ukraine, nuclear weapons and economic coercion.
Deepening ties with China is a strategic course for Moscow, said Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, who held talks on Monday with Chen Wenqing, a member of the Chinese Communist Party’s Politburo that oversees the police , legal affairs and intelligence.
Shweta SharmaMay 24, 2023 05:30
US State Department denies ‘allowing attacks inside Russia’
Matthew Miller, a spokesman for the State Department, said the US government is aware of reports that US armored vehicles were used in the incursion into Russia and that they are investigating the reports.
But he added that the US “does not encourage or allow attacks inside Russia, and we have made that clear.”
“I will say that we are skeptical at this point as to the veracity of these reports,” Miller said in response to a New York Times report.
“But as we have also said,” he added, “it is up to Ukraine to decide how to conduct this war.”
Shweta Sharma24 May 2023 04:45
Russia’s newest nuclear submarine will leave the Arctic as Moscow ramps up its military presence in the Pacific
The Russian Navy’s Generalísimo Suvorov, a nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine, will move to its permanent base on the Kamchatka Peninsula in August, Tass reported, as Moscow ramps up its military presence in the Pacific.
The nuclear submarine, which entered service in late 2022, can carry up to 16 nuclear-tipped Russian Bulava missiles, each of which can carry more than one nuclear warhead.
“The Generalísimo Suvorov submarine will make an internaval transition from the Northern Fleet (in the Arctic) to the Pacific Fleet in August,” state news agency TASS reported, citing a source close to the military department.
“The transition will take place along the Northern Sea Route, even in a submerged position.”
Russia has been beefing up defenses in its vast Far Eastern regions bordering the Asia-Pacific, accusing the United States of expanding its presence there and raising security concerns for Japan and the entire region.
Shweta Sharma24 May 2023 04:15
Ukraine launches investigation against Russian commander
Ukraine’s State Security Service (SBU) said it has opened a criminal investigation into Andrei Ruzinsky, a Russian commander identified by Reuters last year as helping lead the military occupation of the east of Ukraine
Ruzinsky was the commander of the 11th Army Corps of the Russian Baltic Fleet, which crossed into Ukraine in early 2022 and took control of a chain of cities south of Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city. ‘Ukraine.
The SBU said in a statement that it had notified Mr. Ruzinsky, who is on Russian soil, who was suspected of entering into a conspiracy to carry out acts of military aggression.
He said he had ordered heavy weapons attacks on populated areas and had given orders to the military commander in the town of Balakliia, where there were multiple cases of civilians being detained and tortured, according to Ukrainian officials and residents.
Russia withdrew from the area in September last year.
Voices | Putin has torn Bakhmut to pieces. Why does he want it so much?
Just over a year ago, the last Ukrainian soldiers left the Azovstal steel in Mariupol, ending a nearly three-month siege of the city by Russian forces, he writes. Kit Macdonald for independent voices.
The mission of the Ukrainian troops: to tie down the Russian forces in the city for as long as possible, and kill as many as possible in the process, was completed. Ukraine pulled a similar stunt in Severodonetsk and Lysychansk, twin cities on either side of the Donets River, in May and June 2022.
Now, perhaps the perfect execution of these tactics has just ended, is ongoing but about to end, or is about to take a new turn.
Read the full piece here:
Andy GregoryMay 24, 2023 02:54
Ukraine is investigating Belarus’ alleged role in the forced deportation of children
Ukraine is investigating the alleged role of Belarus in the forced transfer of children from territories occupied by Russia, the Prosecutor General’s Office in Kyiv has reported.
The announcement came in response to a report by the Belarusian opposition to exile which alleged that 2,150 Ukrainian children, including orphans aged six to 15, were taken to so-called recreation camps and sanatoriums in Belarusian territory.
Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin’s office told Reuters it has opened criminal proceedings for “the forced transportation/deportation of more than 19,000 children” from the occupied Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and Kharkiv regions, including in Belarus.
“The fact and circumstances of bringing Ukrainian children from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine to the so-called ‘recreational camps’ in Belarus are currently under investigation in the aforementioned criminal proceedings,” he said.
Reuters did not receive responses to questions sent to Lukashenko’s office.
Andy GregoryMay 24, 2023 01:50
