1 of 2 Russia says it defeated fighters from both groups the Russian Freedom Legion (pictured) and the Russian Volunteer Corps Photo: LIBERTY OF RUSSIA LEGION Russia says it defeated fighters from both groups the Russian Freedom Legion (pictured) and the Russian Volunteer Corps Photo: LIBERTY OF RUSSIA LEGION
Fighters dubbed “saboteurs” by the Kremlin crossed the border from Ukraine into the Belgorod region, sparking a Russian “antiterrorist” operation.
After two days of fighting, Russia says it has surrounded the insurgents, killing more than 70 of them and pushing the rest back into Ukraine.
The country has identified them as Ukrainian militants, but Kiev says they are part of two antiKremlin paramilitary groups.
According to the Ukrainian authorities, they are Russian citizens of the Russian Freedom Legion and the Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK), who want to create a “safe zone” for Ukrainians.
Both groups have been described in the past as part of an international legion involved in Ukraine’s territorial defense.
Andriy Yusov of the Kyiv Intelligence Directorate claimed both groups were working “autonomously on the territory of Russia” and that Ukrainians were not involved, while Ukrainian TV said they were militia officers and “Russian volunteers”.
The Russian Volunteer Corps rose to prominence in March 2023 when it took part in an attack in Russia’s Bryansk region involving 45 people.
Unconfirmed Russian reports mentioned shootings, casualties and hostages, while the RDK claimed they crossed the border to call on the Russians to revolt against their rule. The group said they took no hostages and retreated safely to Ukrainian territory.
2 of 2 Russian Volunteer Corps members pose for a photo in Kozinka Photo: Portal Russian Volunteer Corps members pose for a photo in Kozinka Photo: Portal
Their leader is known as Denis Kapustin or Denis Nikitin, a Russian nationalist, and the group openly advocates a monoethnic Russian state.
In 2020, a Ukrainian investigative website claimed that he was linked to neoNazi groups, and Nikitin had claimed in the past that he was part of a football hooligan movement.
The RDK accuses the traditional Russian opposition of remaining inactive in the Ukraine war.
Another member of the group, named Fortuna, told the Ukrainian press last November that there were 120 people.
“We are a volunteer unit, we are not conscripts or contract soldiers like Ukrainian citizens.”
The Russian Freedom Legion is a very different organization that fights alongside Ukrainian troops against Russian forces. The group flies a blue and white flag, seen by some Russian opposition figures as the flag of “free Russia”.
The leader of the Russian Volunteer Corps, Denis Nikitin, said that while both sought to “overthrow the Putin regime,” Legion fighters were more apt to describe themselves as centrists.
However, on May 22, the Legion announced that it had “liberated” the Russian village of Kozinka, across the Ukrainian border, southwest of Belgorod.
“The Legion and the RDK continue to liberate the Belgorod region,” he said.
“Once again, the myth that Russian citizens are safe and the Russian Federation is strong has been debunked,” he added.
Videos of balloons carrying their flag over Moscow were subsequently released.
The Legion’s size is unclear, but according to its website, the group claims to “fight in full cooperation with the Armed Forces of Ukraine and under the leadership of the Ukrainian Command”.
A member named Caesar, arguably the Legion’s best known soldier, insisted that “there are no people in the Legion who have been forced to join it” and all members were contract soldiers of the International Legion of Ukraine.
While he said that a small number of Russian soldiers had surrendered to Ukrainian forces, they did so precisely to change sides.
In response to Moscow’s decision to label it a “terrorist organization,” the group said it had previously been denounced as nonexistent.
There are some doubts about the military importance of the two groups. Ukrainian expert Volodymyr Fesenko says there are several different entities and which appear to be more about public relations than real action.
Former Russian parliamentarian Ilya Ponamarev, now a Ukrainian citizen, said on Facebook in August 2022 that the Legion, the Volunteer Corps and another group called the National Republican Army had signed a declaration agreeing on the common goal, Russia government to be freed from the rule of Vladimir Putin.