Russians hostile to Putin have attacked Belgorod from Ukraine. Russian military bloggers are reacting to this with some panic.
Moscow/Belgorod - Armed fighters from Ukraine entered the Russian border region of Belgorod in Russia's far west on Monday (22 March). They opened fire there and attacked the Russian army and state police.
Russian military bloggers, who play an important role in Putin's war propaganda on social media, reacted quite differently to the attacks in Belgorod, reports the US Institute for the Study of War (ISW). However, the level of "panic, factionalism and incoherence" would show that the attacks in Belgorod have caused a "significant information shock".
Fighters of a volunteer brigade for Ukraine are waiting to be deployed. © IMAGO/Kirill Braga
Attacks in Belgorod: Russian military bloggers rail against traitors
Responsibility for the attacks in Belgorod is claimed by Russian partisans: the Legion "Freedom for Russia" and the "Russian Volunteer Corps" declared that they were responsible for the fighting. Their goal is to liberate the villages in the Belgorod region from Vladimir Putin's regime. They started with the villages of Kozinka and Gor-Podal, but in the long term they want to make the whole of Russia a Putin-free zone, the groups explained on social media.
The fact that the attackers were probably Russian citizens was of great concern to some military bloggers, writes the ISW in its analysis. They railed against the "traitors" and accused them of working for Ukrainian intelligence, without giving any evidence.
Other bloggers, on the other hand, have speculated about whether the timing and nature of the attacks were planned by Ukraine for a long time. The attacks in Belgorod are intended to distract from the alleged Ukrainian defeat in Bakhmut, they speculated. In addition, panic is to be spread in Russia and the fear of a Ukrainian counteroffensive is to be further stoked.
Attacks in Belgrod part of the Ukrainian counteroffensive?
One of Russia's best-known military bloggers, ex-intelligence officer Igor Girkin, has long warned that cross-border attacks are part of a large-scale Ukrainian counteroffensive.
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Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin also commented on the incidents and Belgorod on his various media channels - and once again used them as an opportunity to criticize the Russian government: He accused the Russian Defense Ministry under Sergei Shoigu of not being able to protect Russia's borders.
Attacks on Russian soil came as a surprise
Overall, the most massive attacks on the Russian border area so far in the Ukraine war obviously came as a surprise to Russian commentators on social media, according to experts at the US think tank. This can be deduced from the fact that they "did not find a coherent answer" to it, but reacted quite differently with concern or anger.
Russia announces that it has fought all "terrorists" in Belgorod
Meanwhile, the Russian Defence Ministry said on Tuesday (23 May) that it had successfully fought all "nationalist formations" in the Belgorod region. 70 "Ukrainian terrorists" were killed, the rest were "pushed back" to Ukraine. One of the leading minds behind the Russian Volunteer Corps is said to be a notorious neo-Nazi who lived in Germany for a long time and organized right-wing extremist events there.
Meanwhile, a Russian missile landed in a Polish forest near the Ukrainian border. Now there is ridicule about the "top product of Russian technology." (smu)
