Pro-Kyiv Russian group says it 'didn't lose a single soldier' in cross-border raids on Belgorod

[Kennah]

Source: France 24

FRANCE 24 spoke to exiled Russian opposition figure Ilya Ponomarev, the political representative of the Freedom of Russia Legion. This Ukraine-based paramilitary group of Russian volunteers has been involved in cross-border incursions into Russia's Belgorod region in the past last few days. Ponomarev claimed the pro-Ukrainian, anti-Putin group "didn't lose a single soldier" and is successfully making progress inside Russia. Ultimately, "our guys will be in Moscow and Putin will not be in the Kremlin," he predicted.

Speaking to FRANCE 24 from Kyiv where he lives in exile, Ponomarev claimed the Freedom of Russia Legion "didn't lose a single soldier" while launching this week's cross-border raids from Ukraine into Russian territory.

He denied claims by Russian authorities that they have crushed the paramilitary forces, killing 70 fighters.

Along with the far-right Russian Volunteer Corps (RVC), the Freedom of Russia Legion has taken control of a 40-kilometre strip along the Russian-Ukrainian border and is advancing inside Russia, he added.

Read more: https://www.france24.com/en/tv-shows/the-interview/20230524-pro-ukraine-group-didn-t-lose-a-single-soldier-in-cross-border-raids-leader-says

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Russian videos on this strike me as ludicrous and staged. A couple of HUMVEEs that look like Russian soldiers got drunk and drove them into ditches? A Russian general on foot, with no security, in a supposedly active battlefield? Anti-Putin forces seem to have a far better information game.

[maxsolomon]

1. What did they DO in Russia?

Did they blow any infrastructure up?

[Kennah]

2. Smoke and fires, so things were apparently burned or blown up

Mostly, I think it will make Pooty Bear shit himself, perhaps again. Get in, blow up something, catch something on fire, then leave. A few dozen insurgents could cause Pooty Bear to divert troops to the area from Ukraine. Asymmetric warfare.

[maxsolomon]

3. I'm all for that.

Plus, Ukraine isn't directly conducting the raids.

Frankly, I'd start incursions into Belarus and any Russian staging occurring there. Lukashenko needs to feel the heat.

[CaptainTruth]

6. Accounts on Twitter reported that they "liberated" 3 villages, basically taking them away from...

...Russian control.

[Warpy]

4. Official Russian videos are always pretty funny

because they don't think Russians know how to look at them critically.

One vid I saw was of FORL forces marching double time down the street past the third floor window from which the video was shot. They were just going, in formation, meeting no resistance. Another showed a line of military vehicles, again going quickly down a road, flying both the Ukrainian and FORL flags. I tend to disbelieve most of the other video I saw.

What we do know is that the governor of the Belgorod Oblast has declared martial law and has called on all able bodied men to be armed and ready to defend the province. No word on how many takers he got, or whether they just ran to the south to join the FORL forces. We know nothing about this operation except that it's ongoing, it's a lot more serious than media are admitting, and that it's reasonably well supplied.

At best, it's going to give the Kremlin 2 wars to fight, one internal, the other in Ukraine.

[C Moon]

5. They only lost prisoners and forced-laborers.