Russian pro-Kiev brigades call on civilians to evacuate the cities of Kursk and Belgorod
A few days before the Russian presidential elections, which will be held next weekend, it seems that Ukrainian forces have decided to play a role, in their own way, by forcing the Russian army to fight on the territory of the Russian Federation itself. Today, Russian fighters allied with Ukraine called on residents to leave the cities of Kursk and Belgorod, to avoid civilian casualties.
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With our correspondent in Kyiv, Stefan Siohan
Since Tuesday, March 12, three groups of Russian volunteers – the Russian Freedom Corps, the Russian Volunteer Corps and the Siberian Battalion – appear to have been engaged in fighting with Russian police and soldiers in the Kursk region, where Russian opposition volunteers say they have taken control of the town of Tyukino. Small border.
It is difficult to independently verify the extent of these battles, but many video clips attest to the passage of armed groups and armored vehicles into Russia, while on Tuesday a Ukrainian drone fell on the municipal building of Belgorod, another Russian regional border capital. In the spring of 2023, these Russian groups, famously coordinated by Ukrainian military intelligence, attempted to penetrate Russia.
On Wednesday morning, Denis Nikitin, one of the leaders of the Russian Volunteer Corps, a nationalist formation, announced in an interview that the goal of the current operations is to prevent the holding of Russian presidential elections in the border regions with Ukraine. To discredit these elections, which aim to restore legitimacy to Vladimir Putin.
For the second night in a row, Ukraine also carried out a massive wave of drone bombings of Russian oil refineries. These attacks occurred in five Russian regions during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, which led to a partial halt in production in some refineries. Another way to put pressure on the Kremlin before Poll this weekend.
Read alsoSeveral Russian regions targeted by Ukrainian drone attacks
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