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An apparent attack on Russian soil by anti-Putin Russians, fighting in support of Ukraine, has sparked confusion and anger in Moscow.
Residents of the settlements under attack in Russia’s Belgorod region have been resettled in other areas as authorities continue “clearing the territory” after the cross-border incursion that launched in Ukraine, officials said on Tuesday.
Vladimir Putin has hailed his first major victory since the early days of the invasion of Ukraine, claiming Russian forces had captured the eastern city of Bakhmut despite Kyiv insisting the battle “was not over”.
Russia’s president said the paramilitary group Wagner had seized the Ukrainian city with help from Russia’s armed forces after a bloody, months-long battle that claimed more than 100,000 casualties and reduced the city to ruins.
Kyiv said Sunday that Ukrainian forces had captured more than ten Russian positions on the outskirts of the frontline city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine.
“Today our units have captured more than ten enemy positions in the northern and southern outskirts of Bakhmut,” Deputy Defense Minister Ganna Malyar said on social media.
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Russia accused Ukraine on Wednesday of attacking the Kremlin with drones overnight in an attempt to kill President Vladimir Putin - the most serious allegation that Moscow has levelled at Kyiv in more than 14 months of war.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy promptly denied any Ukrainian involvement, telling a press conference in Helsinki: “We don’t attack Putin, or Moscow, we fight on our territory.”
A massive fire erupted at an oil depot in Crimea after it was hit by two of Ukraine’s drones, a Russia-appointed official there reported Saturday, the latest in a series of attacks on the annexed peninsula as Russia braces for an expected Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Moscow-installed governor of the Black Sea peninsula’s port city of Sevastopol, posted videos and photos of the blaze on his Telegram channel.