Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s team downplayed the idea that pro-Ukraine militias used weapons from the United States in a brazen raid inside Russia this week.
“We're skeptical at this time of the veracity of these reports,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters. “We’ve seen a lot of reports on social media and fuzzy pictures on social media and a lot of armchair intelligence analysts making claims. We’re skeptical that they’re accurate.”
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Russia received a jolt Monday when a pair of militias, reportedly comprised of Russian citizens hostile to Russian President Vladimir Putin, conducted a cross-border attack on Russian towns in the Belgorod region. The assault forced Russian authorities to launch a “counter-terror operation,” which Moscow declared to be a complete success on Tuesday despite taunts from the militias.
"In the course of the counter-terrorist operation, the nationalist formations were blocked and destroyed by air strikes and artillery fire," the Russian Defense Ministry said Tuesday. “The remaining [fighters] were driven back to the territory of Ukraine, where they continued to be hit by fire until they were completely eliminated.”
That claim drew a scornful response from one of the leaders of the assault. “I’m still alive,” Russian Volunteer Corps founder Denis Nikitin told the Financial Times, which cited Nikitin to confirm that “his fighters assaulting the Belgorod region were in possession of American-made military vehicles."
A second militia involved in the attack also taunted Russian authorities. "The Russian Federation is not protected. There is panic in Belgorod Oblast, an organized evacuation in part, but mostly a spontaneous escape," the Freedom of Russia Legion said on social media, per Ukrainian media. “The war will continue until the hanged body of Putin adorns the walls of the Kremlin, and the just court of Russian anger condemns his gang.”
The Freedom of Russia Legion said the assault was a first step in a wider effort “to liberate all of Russia” from Putin’s rule, although the scale of the operation suggested a more modest goal.
“They have Russian passports. They are Russian citizens. Judging by the number of troops involved, this is an assault unit in a combat reconnaissance mission,” reserve Ukrainian colonel Roman Svitan told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, a U.S.-funded outlet. “After checking what kind of resistance there is, these guys will come back to Ukraine and continue carrying out their duties.”
The operation left senior authorities fuming. "As for these scumbags ... The only question is, what is to be done about them? You just have to exterminate them like the rats they are and not even take them prisoner," Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev, who held the Russian presidency for four years, said Tuesday, per state media. “The responsibility for them lies with the Kiev regime and ultimately with its sponsors across the ocean, i.e. Washington, and the European Union countries together with states like Britain and others.”
The attacks put a spotlight on an array of white supremacist or neo-Nazis operating in Ukraine. Nikitin is reportedly a Russian white supremacist who moved to Ukraine after his culpability in a riot at the 2016 UEFA European Football Championship proved embarrassing for Russian authorities. Another militia member is a Russian national who was arrested in 2020 by Ukrainian authorities “during a raid on people selling translated versions of the Christchurch Shooter’s Manifesto,” according to Bellingcat’s Eliot Higgins.
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Russian authorities boasted that they “destroyed four armored combat vehicles and five pickup trucks,” according to state media, but Nikita’s organization denied that claim.
“The Russian Volunteer Corps has not suffered any losses,” they said.