In Russia, fighting breaks out between pro-Ukrainian partisans and Russian forces.
Right in the middle: a right-wing extremist who grew up in Germany.
Bryansk/Moscow – After the partisan attack in the Russian border region of Bryansk, more and more details are coming to light – and the bad news for Vladimir Putin is not getting any less: the partisans are said to have taken at least six people hostage in the village of Sushany.
According to Governor Alexander Bogomaz, the place had previously been attacked with a drone.
But the facts are unclear.
A fighter from the "Russian Volunteer Corps" at least confirmed to the Russian investigative medium
Istories
that they had gone to the Bryansk region.
"I've just come from there.
We had 45 people for this task.
We got there, filmed our cause and ambushed two armored personnel carriers.
I have not seen any injured children.
But there was one injured border guard.
No hostages were taken," the unnamed man said.
According to the Latvia-based Russian exile news agency
Meduza,
the group of around 50 people engaged in an armed struggle with Russian soldiers.
The Russian state agency
TASS
said that there were "dead and wounded" in the clashes.
The background of the partisans varies in both Russian and Ukrainian media reports: while Russian-language media tend to speak of “Ukrainian saboteurs”, in Ukraine there are reports of Russian opponents of the war.
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An armed soldier in Russia's Bryansk border region.
The photo was taken on March 3 - a day after clashes between Russian forces and pro-Ukrainian partisans.
© Sergei Bobylev/Imago
After partisan attack in Russia: will Moscow use the K word soon?
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday (March 2) that President Putin would be regularly informed about the critical situation in the Bryansk region.
Both Peskov and Putin called the partisan attack a "terrorist attack".
Russia's FSB secret service made itself clear, saying in a statement that it would take action "to crush the armed Ukrainian nationalists who violated the state border."
Asked if that would change the status of the war, which Moscow officially calls a "military special operation," Peskov told the press, "I don't know, I can't say yet." Would the Kremlin die "military special operation" officially as a "war" in the future, the Russian population should expect a further wave of mobilization.
Because Moscow could use the fighting in its own country to justify an increase in personnel in Ukraine to its own people.
A Year of the Ukraine War: The Origins of the Conflict with Russia
A Year of the Ukraine War: The Origins of the Conflict with Russia
Russia: Pro-Ukrainian 'Russian Volunteer Corps' calls for rebellion
The Ukrainian presidential adviser, on the other hand, spoke of a "classic deliberate provocation" by Russia and explained that the Kremlin wanted to "scare its people" in order to justify the Ukraine war and "growing poverty".
At the same time, however, he emphasized the "increasingly stronger and more aggressive" counter-movement in the Russian Federation.
"Be afraid of your partisans," said Podoliak.
In fact, behind the partisans are apparently Russian citizens.
In the past few days, the so-called “Russian Volunteer Corps” had increasingly presented itself on social networks.
It was not a "Ukrainian reconnaissance and sabotage group," but rather a group of Russian soldiers who would prove "that the free Russian people can fight with weapons in their hands" against Putin's regime, it said on Telegram.
Other claims are simply "lies by the Kremlin propagandists".
According to a report by
Ukrainska Pravda
, the fighters are a unit formed in August 2022 by Russian volunteers who have joined Ukraine.
After more than a year of war, the fighters are now calling other people to arms: “It is time for ordinary Russian citizens to realize that they are not slaves.
Rebel and fight!” a representative told Ukrainian broadcaster
Suspilne
.
Grew up in Cologne: Russian right-wing extremist apparently leads partisans
The
Istories
investigative journalists have now identified the leader of the partisans as Denis Kapustin, aka "Nikitin".
As Der
Spiegel
reports, the native of Moscow is said to have emigrated to Germany with his family in 2001 – not as late resettlers, but as Jewish refugees.
He then grew up in Cologne in West Germany and became a leading figure in the extreme right-wing martial arts scene.
According to
Spiegel
research, the Russian was expelled from Germany in 2019 and banned from the Schengen area for ten years - the reasons are not known in detail.
Istories
reports that the right-wing extremist moved to Kiev in 2017, where he is said to have opened the Reconquista fight club.
The club attracted nationalists and right-wing extremists from all over the world.
According to the
Guardian
, Kapustin was part of the Cologne hooligan scene for years, which is why he was involved in numerous mass brawls and muggings of opposing fans.
In an interview with the British newspaper, he lashed out at racism, declaring that "if we kill one immigrant every day, that's 365 immigrants a year.
But tens of thousands of them will come anyway."
In the meantime he has realized that "we are fighting the consequences and not the cause" - so we are concentrating on social media and no longer on the street.
In the meantime, his fight seems to be directed against Russia.
(nak)
Rubric list image: © Sergei Bobylev/Imago
