Representatives of Russian volunteer groups RVC, LFR, and the Siberian Battalion held a press conference in Kyiv to discuss the results of a limited operation in the Kursk and Belgorod regions.
What tasks did the ops of Russian volunteers on the border accomplish?
The Russian Volunteer Corps (RVC) founder, Denis Nikitin, said that the Russian volunteers could open a second front in Russia.
At the moment, we can state, and our enemy recognizes this, that we could open a second front and transfer full-fledged military operations to the enemy's territory. Now, the theatre of war is not only Ukraine but also the territory of the Russian Federation. Therefore, due to such an extension of the front line, the Kremlin's military machine could reduce its pressure on other areas of the front.
Denis Nikitin
Founder of the Russian Volunteer Corps
Nikitin notes that if it was believed that the state border had become a fortified area earlier, we could say that the state border was a front line, which the forces of Russian units managed to create.
UAV operator and volunteer of the Svoboda Rossii Legion Alexei Baranovsky (call sign "Liutik") says that the Russian volunteers' operations distracted the Russian occupiers' forces.
We distracted the Russian Air Force tactical aviation. They carried out at least 323 airstrikes using air defence systems. All of them flew to the territory of Belgorod and Kursk regions.
Thanks to the limited military operation of Russian volunteers, Lutik says, the Armed Forces of Ukraine were able to stabilise the front and cover those areas where a massive attack by Putin's troops was expected.
Raid of Russian volunteers in the Russian Federation
On the morning of March 12, it became known that representatives of the Legion "Freedom of Russia", "Russian Volunteer Corps" and "Siberian Battalion" entered the territory of the Belgorod and Kursk regions of the Russian Federation.
As of the morning of March 18, the losses of Putin's army in the Belgorod and Kursk regions amounted to:
Irreversible losses: 613 servicemen
Sanitary losses: 829 servicemen
Captured: 27 servicemen
Commenting on the operation of Russian volunteers, Defence Intelligence of Ukraine (DIU) speaker Andriy Yusov said that fighters on the Russian Federation's territory act as "independent structures and organisations" consisting of Russian citizens, and, accordingly, "they are at home".
