The United States has distanced itself from the attack on the Belgorod region. According to Moscow, armed aggressors from Ukraine allegedly entered the border region. Later, Russia published images of abandoned or damaged Western military vehicles, including American-made Humvees. In Washington, the government reacted cautiously. "We are currently skeptical about the veracity of these reports," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told the New York Times. The United States had neither encouraged nor facilitated attacks within Russia. This has also been made clear. Miller added: "But as we have also said, it is up to Ukraine to decide how it wants to fight this war."
Gerhard Gnauck
Political correspondent for Poland, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, based in Warsaw.
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Majid Sattar
Political correspondent for North America, based in Washington.
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Friedrich Schmidt
Political correspondent for Russia and the CIS.
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Publicly, the American government does not want to criticize Kiev. However, it can be assumed that Washington strikes a different tone internally, especially when American equipment is used on Russian territory. President Joe Biden had only met with the Ukrainian president at the G-7 summit in Hiroshima at the weekend. Referring to his change of course on F-16 fighter jets, Biden said he had received a "blanket assurance" from Volodymyr Zelensky that he would not use the F-16 to enter Russian territory. The fact that Washington remains skeptical about Kiev's commitments in concrete warfare is also revealed by the debate about the supply of long-range missiles, which Biden has so far rejected.
Concern of civilians
In Kiev, the authorities continued their efforts to distance themselves from the fighters, who were claimed in some media to be part of the Ukrainian army. At the request of the Ukrainian portal "liga.net", the General Staff said that the volunteer corps "is not part of the Armed Forces, according to the data of the Main Personnel Administration of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine." However, Andriy Chernyak of the Military Intelligence Service (HUR) had already said on Monday that the "Russian Volunteer Corps" and the "Legion of Freedom of Russia" were working and working closely with the HUR. Ukraine "welcomes the decisive actions" of the opponents of the "aggressive Putin regime." The "demilitarization" of Putin's Russia will continue, Chernyak told the Interfax agency.
In Russia, the fact that American vehicles were presumably used for the action in the Belgorod region has not yet been used for propaganda purposes on a large scale. In any case, they see themselves at war with a "collective West" that is arming Ukraine in order to destroy Russia. Above all, the events are unpleasant for those in power: the fact that the attackers were able to advance several kilometers into Russian territory indicates a temporary loss of control. So far, the Russian military has not provided any evidence of having "destroyed more than 70 Ukrainian terrorists". On the other hand, the two exiled Russian associations "Legion" and "Volunteer Corps", which claim the Belgorod action for themselves, have not provided any evidence of killed Russian soldiers.
On Wednesday night, an alleged commander of the "corps" spoke out in a live broadcast on the YouTube channel of Russian Kremlin critic Mark Fejgin. The commander, introduced by the pseudonym "WhiteRex", said that the population of the Russian border areas had been "left to their own devices" by Moscow and was defenseless. Claims by the state about the billions spent on border fortification have turned out to be lies. But people need not be afraid: "We are not fighting against the civilian population." At best, they shoot back for self-defense.