Ukraine war: US distances itself from Belgorod incursion into Russia

The US has distanced itself from an incursion into Russia – which Moscow says ended in the defeat of armed insurgents who entered from Ukraine.

Parts of the border region of Belgorod came under attack on Monday, in one of the largest cross-border raids since Russia invaded its neighbour last year.

Russia later released pictures of abandoned or damaged Western military vehicles, including US-made Humvees.

The US insisted it did not “encourage or enable strikes inside of Russia”.

A state department spokesman acknowledged reports “circulating on social media and elsewhere” that US-supplied weapons had been used, but said his country was “sceptical at this time of the veracity of these reports”.

In a news briefing on Tuesday, Matthew Miller added: “It is up to Ukraine to decide how to conduct this war.”

The BBC has not been able to verify the images released by Russia.

Villages in Belgorod near the border were evacuated after coming under fire. Russia says 70 attackers were killed, and has insisted the fighters were Ukrainian.

But Kyiv denies involvement – and two Russian paramilitary groups opposed to Russian President Vladimir Putin say they were behind the incursion.

Who are the fighters infiltrating Russia from Ukraine?
Monday’s raid led Moscow to declare a counter-terrorism operation, giving the authorities special powers to clamp down on communications and people’s movements.

The measures were only lifted the following afternoon, and even then, one of the paramilitary groups was claiming it still controlled a small piece of Russian territory.

Regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said one civilian had died during the violence, and several others were injured.

In a later development, he said the region had been subject to a “large” number of drone attacks overnight on Tuesday. He said the attacks damaged private vehicles, houses and offices, but there were no victims.

Mr Gladkov also said a gas pipeline was damaged in the Graivoron district by the drone barrage, which led to a small fire on Wednesday morning.

The claims by the warring sides have not been independently verified – although the BBC was able to establish that a building used by Russia’s main security agency, the FSB, was among those hit during the violence. It is not clear what caused the damage.

Source: bbcnews