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.”
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS