The fighters are exuberant after their cross-border mission, showing off a captured BRT armoured car and machine guns among their battle trophies, while vowing further attacks in a long campaign and predicting Vladimir Putin’s downfall.
They have not invaded Russia on Ukraine’s behalf, but started a war of liberation, declares Denis Kapustin, the head of the Russian Volunteer Corps at a camp in northeastern Ukraine. “We went back to our homeland. There were no Ukrainian soldiers with us; they will not appear in the territory of the Russian Federation. This is our internal problem,” he insists.
The group, along with another anti-Putin militia, the Freedom of Russia Legion, claim that they were answering a cry for help from the people of Belgorod, the region in which they have taken over a few villages amid much publicity. The deputy commander of the Freedom of Russia Legion, call sign Caesar, says: “Not long ago, as you know, Russian Su-35s [warplanes] dropped two bombs over Belgorod. After this, we began to receive letters from local residents with a request to demilitarise the region.
This story is from the May 26, 2023 edition of The Independent.
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This story is from the May 26, 2023 edition of The Independent.
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