“Leave town immediately.
» Russian volunteers fighting for Ukraine announced strikes on two major Russian cities near the Ukrainian border on Wednesday and urged civilians to leave those locations.
“We are forced to strike military positions stationed in the cities of Belgorod and Kursk,” three pro-Kiev fighting units named the Russian Freedom Legion, the Russian Volunteer Corps and the Siberian Battalion said on Telegram.
“To avoid civilian casualties, we call on everyone to leave these cities immediately,” they continued.
Several injured near Belgorod
This statement comes the day after incursions into the border regions of Belgorod and Kursk, claimed by these units and which the Russian Defense Ministry said it had “repulsed”.
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“There was a shooting”: fighting breaks out on the border between Russia and Ukraine
However, a member of the territorial defense was killed and ten civilians injured in the incursion into the Belgorod region, its Russian governor said.
A captured village
In the Kursk region, the “Russian Freedom Legion”, behind previous armed incursions, claimed Tuesday the capture of the border village of Tiotkino.
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These fighters, who say they are Russian, announced that they had “destroyed” a Russian armored vehicle and that Moscow’s forces had “quickly left” the village, leaving heavy weapons behind them.
Russian regional authorities then ordered the closure of schools in the city of Kursk “due to recent events”, according to Mayor Igor Koutsak.