Moscow on Monday said that its troops were battling a Ukrainian “sabotage” group that infiltrated the southern Russian region of Belgorod, as locals fled the latest bout of fighting in the troubled territory.
In a first since the start of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February last year, Russian authorities introduced an “anti-terror regime” in Belgorod.
Since the start of the war, the region bordering Ukraine has been repeatedly shelled in attacks that have killed dozens of people, and the region’s main city was struck last month by a Russian fighter jet that dropped ammunition over Belgorod by accident.
Photo: AP
In the latest incursion, members of a “sabotage” group crossed over from Ukraine, Russian authorities said, adding that Russian President Vladimir Putin had been notified.
Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said eight people had been injured, adding that authorities were helping people leave the scene of the fighting.
The announcement came as Russian forces pummeled the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro with missiles and drones overnight.
“The situation here continues to be extremely tense,” Gladkov said, adding that authorities were going door to door to notify local residents. “Most of the population left the territory. I hope that our military will complete their task in the nearest future.”
The “anti-terror regime” introduced in the southern region gives special powers to security services, and entails the enforcement of a number of restrictions and measures including beefed-up security and communications surveillance. A similar regime was in place in Chechnya between 1999 and 2009, when Russian authorities battled insurgents during Moscow’s second military campaign in the mountainous region.
Members of the anti-Kremlin Freedom of Russia Legion claimed responsibility for the incursion into Belgorod.
In a video released by a Telegram channel claiming to represent the group, a camouflaged spokesman, surrounded by armed men in fatigues, said: “Russia will be free” — a slogan frequently used by Russian opposition activists.
“We want our children to grow up in peace and be free,” the spokesman added, with the channel claiming that two settlements had been attacked.
Kyiv denied involvement.
“Ukraine is watching the events in Russia’s Belgorod region with interest and is studying the situation, but has nothing to do with it,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Mikhaylo Podolyak said.
Podolyak said that Russian “guerrilla groups” could be responsible.
“The only driving political force in a totalitarian country of tightened screws is always an armed guerrilla movement,” he said.
Ukraine’s army earlier on Monday said that Russian forces pummeled Dnipro with 16 missiles and 20 attack drones overnight.
In the southern Kherson region, a 45-year-old man died when a shell fragment hit him in the heart, officials said.
Two people also died in Russian attacks on the region of Donetsk over the past day, officials said.
Following the attacks on Dnipro, Ukrainian authorities said that the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant went offline for several hours.
Ukraine’s nuclear agency said it was the seventh time the plant entered “blackout mode” since Moscow’s troops took control in March last year.
Kyiv later said that despite the morning attack, Ukraine’s energy system was operating in a “stable fashion” and that there was enough electricity to “cover the needs of consumers.”
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
RSS