Russian soldiers who fought last week’s anti-Vladimir-Putin militia invading the Belgorod region bordering Ukraine lamented that “entire regiments” were being wiped out.
The Pskov Province Telegram channel said on Tuesday that it had received a message from a Russian unit fighting near the border town of Shebekino in Belgorod. “I would like to see the story of how our regiment was slaughtered towards Shebekino and Graivoron and somehow settle the matter,” the message said.
Two Russian rebel groups — the Legion of Freedom of Russia and the Russian Volunteer Corps (RVC) — invaded Belgorod last week and fierce fighting has erupted ever since. The Legion is made up of defectors from the Russian armed forces, as well as Russian and Belarusian volunteers, and its members include Russians fighting on the side of Ukraine and against the Kremlin regime, according to the RVC.
A deputy commander of Russia’s Freedom Legion, who gave his callsign as Caesar (3rd R), stands with his fellow combatants during a presentation to the media in northern Ukraine, not far from the Russian border, May 24, 2023 amid Russian military invasion of Ukraine. Russian nationals fighting on Ukraine’s side on May 24 hailed the brazen mission to send groups of volunteers across the border to southern Russia and back as a “success.” SERGEY BOBOK/AFP/Getty Images
On Sunday, the RVC said it was behind an attack in the Belgorod region that captured several Russian soldiers.
“We are under constant fire, officers, enlisted men and especially people who have families and all their relatives at home are being killed,” the Russian regiment said in a statement.
The Russian soldiers said poor leadership and a lack of reinforcements and equipment were responsible for the high death toll.
“We stand ready to defend our homeland but with adequate supplies,” the unit said. “And being captured unarmed or unopposed does not mean defending your homeland. On behalf of the 1009th Regiment, we ask that you address this serious issue and make decisions as soon as possible.”
The soldiers said they were mobilized eight months ago and later taken to Ukraine’s so-called Luhansk People’s Republic for training, which took place “with varying degrees of success”. According to the Telegram channel, the men were then dispatched to the Belgorod region.
A unverified video was also circulated on Russian and Ukrainian social media channels and is said to show a Russian soldier from the 138th Brigade stationed in the Belgorod region. In the video, the soldier said his unit lost 80 percent of its personnel and that he and his comrades were “forced to retreat without permission and without reinforcements.”
“After some time, the same situation occurred in two other groups [units]. They massacred entire regiments of our men,” said the soldier.
Ilya Ponomarev, an exiled Russian politician who says he is the political representative of the Freedom of Russia Legion, told Newsweek last week that the group aims to “rid Russia of Putinism.”
Alexei Baranovsky, a representative of the political wing of Russia’s Freedom Legion, said: “The minimum plan is to create a demilitarized zone on the border with Ukraine so that from here Putinists cannot fire ground missiles into Ukraine’s territory.”
“But the main plan, of course, is a rapid advance on Moscow,” he told Newsweek.
The British Ministry of Defense assessed on June 2 that Russian commanders now face an “acute dilemma” whether to reinforce defenses in Russia’s border regions or their lines in occupied Ukraine.
Newsweek has emailed the Russian Foreign Ministry for comment.
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