A Ukrainian cross-border raid targeting Russia’s Belgorod Region was repulsed on Sunday, with losses in men and materiel to the attacking force, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said. It called the incursion an attempted “terrorist attack” against civilians.
The response to the attack near the village of Novaya Tavolzhanka was conducted jointly by the Russian military and border guard units of the Federal Security Service (FSB), the ministry said during a daily briefing on Monday.
According to the statement, the Ukrainian operation was launched at around 1pm local time and involved intensive shelling of Russian civilian targets. Ukrainian troops used the barrage as cover in an attempt to cross the Seversky Donets river, it said.
Russian forces deployed aviation and artillery to stop the assault. Ukraine lost at least ten soldiers, two boats and an armored vehicle, the ministry claimed. The counterattack also hit five mortar squads, a multiple rocket launcher and two Polish-made Krab self-propelled howitzers in Ukraine’s Kharkov Region, which were striking targets in Russia, the ministry added.
The ‘Russian Volunteer Corps’ (RDK), a neo-Nazi militia allied with the Ukrainian government, claimed responsibility for the weekend’s incursion into Russia. Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov branded them “scoundrels, bastards, murderers and fascists,” who kill civilians.
The RDK has launched several similar raids on Russia in previous weeks. The force used weapons produced by Western nations, calling into question pledges Kiev has offered to its foreign backers that any arms donated to it would only be used defensively.