– Russians should have attacked us? What are you saying, Ukrainians are attacking. Why would Russians attack other Russians? That’s what Svetlana says. She is from the town of Shebekino, six kilometers from the Ukrainian border. news meets her in a queue outside the Red Cross in Belgorod city. Pictures from Russian TV show extensive damage to an apartment block in Shebekino. Photo: Russian TV Svetlana is among over 40,000 who have been evacuated from their homes near the border. The Red Cross helps pay one-off grants from the state to those affected. – I want to look them in the eye first, says Vasilij in the same queue. He also doubts that Russians are participating in the attacks. Partly there is talk of repeated rocket attacks against civilian buildings in the town of Shebekino, where the majority of the evacuees live. Shebekino is six kilometers from the Ukrainian border. news encountered a long queue outside the Red Cross building in Belgorod. Photo: Yuriy Linkevich The Russian Volunteer Corps and the Legion for Freedom for Russia are based in Ukraine. They claim that their soldiers have entered Russian territory. Several photos and a video that news has geolocated indicate that this is true. But few of those we met in Belgorod knew which groups we were talking about. Fighting for an ethnically clean Russia The Russian Volunteer Corps has published a link to something resembling a manifesto on its Telegram channel. Entitled “Homo Ethnicus”, they advocate an “ethnic state” for Russians, based on “blood and the existence of national self-consciousness”. A screenshot from the Telegram channel of the Russian Volunteer Corps. Photo: Gro Holm / Screenshot – If Putin wins, it means that multinational hell wins, the document says. They refer to the Ukrainians as their “brothers”, because they (wrongly) perceive them as followers of the same ideology. The leader of the Russian Volunteer Corps, Denis Kapustin – alias Denis Nikitin or “White Rex”, is classified by both American and German sources as a neo-Nazi. Denis Kapustin met the press together with members of the paramilitary group last month. Photo: AFP Kapustin lived in Germany for several years from 2001. The German magazine Der Spiegel writes that he had close contact with well-known German neo-Nazis. He organized martial arts events and was spotted wearing a T-shirt with a swastika-like symbol. The nickname “White Rex” plays on white supremacy. In 2018, Kapustin toured Europe with one of the leaders of the American Rise Above movement. They stand for the same thing. Ukraine’s role unclear In an interview that the New York Times has done with a spokesman for the Volunteer Corps, they claim that the equipment and weapons used to attack from the city of Vovchansk on the Ukrainian side are theirs. But it is inconceivable that a paramilitary group composed mainly of Russians could attack Russia without at least Ukrainian approval. Local residents walk along the streets of Vovchansk, which is on the Ukrainian side of the border. Photo: Reuters And the head of the investigation in the police in Vovchansk tells the newspaper that “the artillery that is fired is ours”, that is, Ukraine’s. It is only 20 kilometers across to the Russian town of Shebekino. The head of the volunteer corps, Denis Kapustin, confirmed to the Financial Times that his soldiers have two US-made armored vehicles and several Humvees at their disposal. Avisa has analyzed videos and photos showing several of these on the Russian side of the border. Soldiers from the volunteer corps posed with their leader last month. Photo: AFP The same type of vehicle has been delivered from the USA to Ukraine. Ukraine has long insisted that the Russian Volunteer Corps operates on its own. But in a memorandum from October 2022, the corps claims that it is part of Ukraine’s armed forces. Confirms cooperation Andriy Chernjak from the Ukrainian military intelligence confirmed to the newspaper in May that there is indeed cooperation going on. – Of course we communicate with them. Of course we share some information. You could probably say that we even cooperate, said Černjak to the Financial Times. At the same time, he denied that the Ukrainian defense is directly involved in the attacks against Russian territory. He also insisted that all weapons that Ukraine has received from the West are “under the strictest control”. This soldier is said to have been killed in battle against Russian military forces in Belgorod. Photo: AP Russia does not prioritize Belgorod Until now, it has mostly been ordinary border forces and Russian conscripts who have defended the Russian side of the border. In a meeting with military bloggers on June 13, President Putin admitted that Russia “has a problem” with securing the population in the border areas. He said that one of the options is to create a buffer zone on the Ukrainian side of the border, so that it will be impossible to reach Russia with the type of artillery used until now. At the same time, Putin said that the goal from the Ukrainian side is to withdraw parts of the Russian forces away from areas that are more important to being able to respond to the Ukrainian offensive. Putin told the military bloggers that consideration is being given to creating a buffer zone on the border with Ukraine. Photo: Reuters Frightening for civilians news’s dispatchers witnessed two episodes in one day where Russian air defense shot down rockets or drones that probably came from the Ukrainian side of the border. The remains from one shooting ended up just fifty meters away from a block of flats in the town of Razumnoje. Outside the block, Galina (80) sat looking after children in a playground. – We often hear explosions, and today there were very loud noises nearby, says Galina. – Are you afraid to live here? – Yes, it is terrifying, terrifying. Galina lives in the town of Razumnoje, where the Russian military recently shot down a drone. Photo: Jurij Linkevich She says she firmly believes in Putin and in what is said on TV. Galina believes that the war could last for decades, because it will take time for the Americans and those who support America to destroy Russia. Think Ukrainian soldiers are being forced Outside one of the centers for distributing food to those who have been evacuated, news meets Sergej. He cannot believe that “Ukrainian brothers” really support President Zelenskyi and the defensive war against Russia. – Of those sitting in the trenches, 10 percent are nationalists. 90 percent have been forced there, and they do not want to defend Ukraine. – They don’t want the Ukraine they are forcing on them now, says Sergej. Sergej believes there would have been peace a long time ago if Ukraine had not received weapons from the West. Photo: Yuriy Linkevich He believes the war would have lasted “for a month and a half, not a year and a half” if the US and Europe had not supplied the Ukrainians with weapons. – We had long since found a solution and become friends again, says Sergej. And news met no one who does not believe in a Russian victory.
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Don’t think Russians are attacking Russians – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
