What exactly was going on in the western Russian Belgorod region remained largely unclear on Tuesday. Since Monday evening, an "anti-terrorist operation" had been underway there against an attack that had begun on the morning of the same day. Further restrictions further thinned out the already meager flow of news. According to the governor of the region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, the operation was directed against a "group of saboteurs" of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. According to information from Kiev, on the other hand, "opposition-minded citizens of Russia" were active in the area.

Friedrich Schmidt

Political correspondent for Russia and the CIS.

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Two groups fighting on the side of the Ukrainians, the "Legion 'Freedom of Russia'" and the "Russian Volunteer Corps", are said to have joined forces. "We are Russians just like you," said a man with an assault rifle in a clip of the "Legion" published on Monday, giving out goals of the action in the Belgorod region: "We want our children to grow up in peace and be free people, to be able to travel and study and just be happy in a free country." But that is impossible in President Vladimir Putin's Russia. The latter "will be free," the man concluded, using a formula common among Russian oppositionists.

Nine locations are said to have been shelled

It is unclear how many members the "Legion", founded in March 2022, has; Last March, it was declared a "terrorist organization" in Russia. The "Russian Volunteer Corps" had caused a stir at the beginning of March with an attack in the Bryansk region; at that time, according to official figures, two people were killed and three others were injured. On Monday, the Ukrainian military intelligence service named more limited goals of the action in Belgorod, which is carried out exclusively by Russians: It is intended to create a "security strip to protect Ukrainian civilians".

The Belgorod governor now mentioned on Telegram the names of nine places that had been shelled with mortars and artillery and also attacked with drones. They are located in the area around the small town of Grajworon near the border with a good 6000 inhabitants. The residents had been "effectively resettled," Gladkov said. Twelve civilians were injured, 29 houses and three cars were damaged. 14 villages lack electricity. The "cleansing" of the area from the consequences of the attack continues. Earlier on Tuesday morning, the governor said it was too early for residents of the area to return to their homes. In the course of the evacuation, a woman born in 1941 died.

Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that the "saboteurs" would be "pushed out of Russian territory and destroyed." Russia has sufficient forces on the ground for this. On Tuesday, he was anxious to portray what was happening as an exclusively Ukrainian attack, i.e. without a Russian component; possibly because the latter contradicts Putin's dictum of a "consolidation" of Russian society. Responding to a question about "ethnically Russian" aggressors, Peskov said: "These are Ukrainian fighters from Ukraine." In the country "there are a lot of ethnic Russians, but nevertheless they are Ukrainian fighters." These "continue their activity against our country," Peskov said, expressing his "deep concern."