6/8/23

Arepresentative of some of the Ukraine-aligned Russian rebels fighting Moscow’s troops in the border Belgorod region has told Newsweek that the ongoing cross-frontier incursions are further evidence of the Kremlin’s military exhaustion.

Alexei Baranovsky, a representative of the political wing of the Freedom of Russia Legion—one of the pro-Kyiv armed Russian groups taking part in the border raids—said Moscow has proved unable to handle the mobile, small-unit tactics employed by the anti-President Vladimir Putin insurgents in recent months.

Russian and foreign observers have been surprised at the inability of Moscow’s troops to defend the country’s frontier. Artillery, drone and sabotage attacks on Russian soil have become somewhat normalized over 16 months of Moscow’s full-scale invasion.

But the success of the incursion forces, Barankovsky said, is no surprise to those who planned them. “The reaction of the Russian government and the armed forces on the rebel invasion to the Belgorod region was not weak,” he told Newsweek. “On the contrary, [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s army is trying its best.”

Ukraine-aligned units—among them the Freedom of Russia Legion, Russian Volunteer Corps, and the Polish Volunteer Corps—have crossed onto Russian territory in significant numbers, attacking local border forces, capturing enemy soldiers and even occupying settlements.

As thousands of citizens flee, Russian regular forces have proven unable to dislodge the attackers, even with the help of air and artillery strikes.

Some analysts have suggested the Kremlin’s apparent hesitation to send significant reinforcements to the area is borne out of fear of Ukraine’s looming—or perhaps underway—counteroffensive. To weaken the front lines in southern and eastern Ukraine now, such experts say, would be a gift to Kyiv’s units switching to offensive operations there.

Andriy Zagorodnyuk, Ukraine’s former defense minister and now an adviser to the defense ministry, told Newsweek that the rebel incursion “certainly creates distractions” and “a need to pull out resources.”

He added: “More importantly, it shows Russians they cannot defend their own territory.”

Baranovsky said the rebel success in Belgorod is further proof of the “myth about the second army in the world,” referring to the common pre-invasion suggestion that Moscow forces were second in size and ability only to their American rivals.

“We already know the cheap cost of the Russian Army. She is not big. And the Russian Army is trying with all her might to drive the rebels out of the Belgorod region, and nothing happens. Putinists still have a lot of soldier meat, but little military skill and cunning,” he said.

“Despite all their efforts, small but mobile and cunning units of rebels quickly move around the Belgorod region and inflict deadly attacks in various unexpected places.

“And the stupid, clumsy Russian military machine can’t do anything with it. And when the partisan units grow up in numbers, we will move even deeper into Russia, and not only in the Belgorod region.”

Newsweek reached out to the Russian Foreign Ministry via email for comment.

https://www.newsweek.com/putin-army-trying-belgorod-failing-freedom-russia-legion-1805262