Who are the pro-Ukrainian militias raiding Russia’s Belgorod region?
They have links to Ukrainian military intelligence and, in some cases, to the far right
IN THE LATE afternoon of May 22nd footage emerged of two grinning pro-Ukrainian fighters in the midst of a cross-border raid into Russia. “The key to the border has been broken in half,” says one, quoting from “Everything is Going to Plan”, a cult anthem by Civil Defence, a Russian rock band. But the attack that the two men had helped engineer showed that, for Russia, things were very much not going to plan. It included: an illegal crossing from Ukraine into Belgorod, a Russian region on the border, by tanks and infantry fighting vehicles; the death of at least one border guard; farm buildings on fire; a downed helicopter; traffic jams of fleeing locals; and the reported evacuation of a nuclear-arms facility several kilometres into Russian territory. Who was responsible for the incursion?
From the May 27th 2023 edition
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