FROM OUR REPORTER
KIEV – The spokesman for the Free Russia Legion is Maximillian Andronnikov. Tall, thin, with slicked back hair, combat name Cesare, he had no military experience but has been training with Legion volunteers for more than a year. As a young man he had joined the “Russian Imperial Movement”, not exactly a liberal or democratic group. The Legion’s political representative is instead Ilya Ponomarev, a former Duma deputy close to the Russian reformism of anti-Putin billionaire Mikhail Khodorkosky, now in exile in London. The Russian Volunteer Corps, smaller in number than the Legion, presents itself as the armed opposition to Putinism from far-right positions, nostalgic for tsarism. Embarrassing statements by an alleged commander are circulating online. “If they call me a neo-Nazi, I don’t care. I don’t consider it an insult.
It’s a diverse and opaque galaxy of fighters poking fun at the Russian defenses on the border between Ukraine’s Kharkiv Region and Russia’s Belgorod Region. According to an interview given by Ponomarev to Corriere a few days ago, their numerical strength is about 2 thousand soldiers for the legion and 500 for the “volunteer corps”. “They are all Russians by ethnicity and passport, united by hatred of Putin’s regime.” Some were living in Ukraine at the time of the invasion, others came on purpose to join the fight, still others are Federation soldiers who belong to ours armed forces defected.”
The two military groups are part of the Ukrainian Army within the Foreign Legion, which also includes Belarusian, Georgian, Chechen and Western citizen battalions. They have to submit to the central command in Kiev and are armed and trained like Ukrainian soldiers. To avoid intruders, the selection process is thorough and includes intelligence investigations and the use of lie detectors.
Incursions into Russian territory are a new novelty. The first took place on May 22 and lasted two days, the outcome of the second, which began on Friday, is still unclear. However, in the past, Russian volunteers fighting for Kiev took part in the defense of several locations in Donbass, Kherson, and also in the bloody Battle of Bakhmut.
The ambiguity over the legal status of these foreign militiamen allows Ukraine to maintain some distance from the raid as if it were an internal Russian matter. The Western allies have always included “defense aid” as part of the conditions for supplying arms, that is, supporting Kiev in the liberation of areas occupied by the Russian army. not to attack Russia itself. A video released by the rebels on Friday showed them maneuvering US-donated vehicles in Kiev. At the protests in Washington, the “legionnaires” replied that it was spoils of war stolen by the Russians. Yesterday it was Brussels’ turn to protest against some Belgian Scar assault rifles seen in their hands.
However, the incursion, like the ongoing, officially Ukrainian artillery shelling, is of enormous strategic importance for Kiev. Attempts to force Moscow to move military units from occupied territories in Ukraine to the legal border between the two countries. The announced counter-offensive in Kiev would thus encounter less resistance.