Pro-Ukrainian militias on Tuesday, March 12 staged a cross-border attack on Russia, hours after Kyiv launched one of its largest drone attacks since the start of the war. Groups of pro-Kyiv volunteer fighters said that they had broken into the Kursk and Belgorod regions, while Moscow said it had foiled multiple Ukrainian attempts to infiltrate the border.
"We crossed the border," the Freedom of Russia legion, a militia that claims to be made up of Russian citizens fighting on behalf of Ukraine, said it a post on Telegram. It published a video from a drone that claimed to show the vehicle being blown up and fighters on the streets of the village of Tyotkino, on the border between Russia and Ukraine.
Moscow said it had fought off multiple attacks. "At about 3 am, Ukrainian terrorist groups, after intensive shelling of civilian sites, tried to invade Russian territory in three directions," Russia's defense ministry said. "All the Ukrainian attacks were repelled. The enemy was hit by aircraft, rockets and artillery," it added. Another attack at 8 am at Tyotkino was also foiled, it added.
A spokesman for the Freedom of Russia legion said fighting was ongoing as of 1:15 pm, while Russia's defense ministry said it thwarted the last attack at 8:25 am. Another pro-Kyiv paramilitary group, the Russian Volunteer Corps, posted night-vision video on Tuesday purporting to show its troops engaged in a firefight. Kursk Governor Roman Starovoyt said a shoot-out in his region had taken place and officials in Kursk city said they were closing schools until the end of the week amid the spike in attacks.
The Russian Volunteer Corps and the Freedom of Russia Legion said they conducted a string of raids into the Belgorod region in May and June 2023, claiming to have taken temporary control of several settlements after breaking through a border checkpoint.
A spokesman for Ukraine's military intelligence, Andriy Yusov, said that the Russian volunteer groups were not acting under orders from Kyiv by launching the assault. But he added that the attacks showed "the Kremlin is once again not in control of the situation in Russia."
A spokesperson for the political wing of the Freedom of Russia Legion told Agence France-Presse on Tuesday the attack was timed to coincide with Russia's March 15-17 presidential elections. "This is not an election at all. It is the next stage of a usurpation of power, the formation of Putin's dictatorship under the guise of elections," spokesman Alexei Baranovsky said.
The cross-border attack came as Kyiv launched one of its most significant drone strikes on Russia so far in the two-year war. Two Russian energy sites, including one of the country's largest oil refineries some 800 kilometers from the border, were hit overnight, Russian officials said.
A major oil refinery in Kstovo, just outside the city of Nizhny Novgorod, was attacked by drones early on Tuesday morning, the regional governor said. Another drone crashed into a fuel depot and ignited a fire in Oryol, around 160 kilometers from the border, according to the regional governor.
Ukraine has claimed responsibility for a wave of drone strikes and blasts at Russian energy sites in recent months, justifying the attacks as legitimate targeting of infrastructure sites used to fuel the invasion.