On May 22nd, 2023, Russia was invaded. But it wasn't the start of the much
feared Ukrainian counter attack, it was Russia invading... Russia?
Early in the day an undisclosed number of troops, estimated at around 70,
pushed into the Belgorod Oblast in Russia from the Ukrainian border.
The men were quickly identified as the Freedom of Russia Legion and Russian Volunteer Corps,
two unaffiliated groups who share a similar goal- defeating Russia in Ukraine and beyond.
These all-Russian groups consist of men who have fled from their homeland, and are determined to
fight on until the Putin regime is toppled and Russia is liberated- a tall ask indeed.
Before we go into their invasion of the Belgorod Oblast though, who exactly are these groups?
The Freedom of Russia Legion, or Free Russia Legion, was established one month
after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The initial founding members all responded to
President Volodymyr Zelensky's call for foreign volunteers willing to defend Ukraine from the
Russian onslaught. Already disgusted with the Putin regime and his growing dictatorship,
groups of Russian volunteers crossed the border to fight against their countrymen.
However, the core group allegedly was made up of a company of Russian soldiers who defected. With
help from the Security Service of Ukraine, the defectors crossed enemy lines on February 27th,
with the stated goal of “protecting Ukraine from real fascists”. The company commander
then made a public appeal to other Russian forces,
asking them to switch sides in order to save their country from quote- “humiliation and destruction”.
On April 5th, three men in military fatigues and black balaclavas held a press conference in Kyiv.
There they announced the official formation of the Freedom of Russia Legion, claiming that they
had been tricked by the Putin regime into carrying out a war of genocide. Their numbers were quickly
bolstered by captured POWs, who preferred to fight back against Russian forces than simply sit by in
Ukrainian POW camps. This created a high degree of mistrust between the legion and Ukrainian armed
forces, but many of these POWs had been forced to fight in the first place. The UAF would gradually
grow to trust the legion as they undertook various dangerous missions in defense of Ukraine.
The Legion would begin to gain some fame as they were interviewed by Ukrainian media. Soon, foreign
media picked up the story and brought attention to this group of Russians who had chosen to fight
against their countrymen. The recruitment of Igor Volobuev, former vice-president of Gazprombank,
immediately increased the group's profile, and has been the Legion's most famous recruit to date.
Some say it also caused significant concern in the Kremlin, because if
such a senior official was willing to pick up arms and fight against Russian forces,
then how many more were willing to silently sabotage the war effort from within? The
infamous Discord leaks of Pentagon classified intelligence showed that Russia had good reason
to fear this, as the US was being freely given access to very detailed information
that only individuals in high profile positions could possibly have access to.
The Freedom of Russia Legion wears their own version of the Russian flag, with white, blue,
and white stripes. They also wear the blue and yellow colors of the Ukrainian
flag to signify their allegiance to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. While
their compatriots on the other side of no man's land sport Z's on their vehicles,
the legion instead uses the letter L- standing for Legion and Liberty.
Nobody knows just how many legionnaires there are, and everyone involved is keeping it a secret. The
Kremlin claims that the legion doesn't exist, and is instead a fabrication of the Ukrainian
intelligence services. However, this is almost certainly not true given that verified Russian
citizens work as the Legion's spokes people- and also because the Kremlin lies about everything.
Some believe the legion may have as many as two battalions, or 2,000 men in its service.
However any statements from the legion itself only claim hundreds. This could be more misdirection
in order to make the legion seem less of a threat than it really is- though the legion
claims to have support in most major Russian cities. And there may be some truth to that,
given the steadily increasing numbers of arson and sabotage attacks inside of Russia.
Shortly after the formation of the Legion, there have been over 100 mysterious arson attacks inside
Russia. Some of these attacks have focused on high profile targets, and this separates them from
the string of fires that have targeted Russian recruitment stations and are largely attributed to
Russians unhappy with the mobilizations. Targets struck by either Ukrainian intelligence agents or
possible Legionnaires include a Governor's home, the Central Research Institute of the Aerospace
Defense Forces, multiple chemical plants, fuel depots, and military bases, the business
center which runs the offices responsible for the Russian pension fund, Rosatom Institute of Digital
Technologies, Zagorsk Optical-Mechanical Plant- which produces optical, thermal, and night vision
systems-, the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier, the FSB building, and the Defense ministry itself.
The sheer number of attacks and their high profile targets lends serious
credibility to the Legion's claim to have support all across Russia- and
may hint at some very high level support which should significantly worry Putin.
The Kremlin's response has been to claim that the legion does not exist,
and is purely a PR project undertaken by Ukrainian intelligence. However,
despite claiming the legion doesn't exist, Putin signed a law on July 14th, 2022, specifically
targeting Russians who defect to the enemy during armed conflict or hostilities. Any defectors will
face a prison sentence of up to 20 years, and a year later in March 2023, the Supreme Court of
Russia declared the Legion a terrorist group- a Legion which officially, the Kremlin doesn't
believe exists. Kremlin propaganda outlets parrot the official Putin stance that the Legion is
pure propaganda, and all those explosions and fires? Probably just more smoking accidents.
Not to be confused with the Freedom of Russia Legion, the Russian Volunteer Corps are a separate
group of fighters affiliated with Ukraine- and also made up of Russian emigrants. Formed
in August 2022, the RVC is made up of Russian volunteers who started their resistance against
the Putin regime in 2014, fighting alongside the Azov Regiment and other Ukrainian units. While the
Freedom of Russia Legion is more cosmopolitan, and made up of a significant number of former POWs,
the Russian Volunteer Corps is largely made up of Russian right-wing emigrants who moved to Ukraine
before and after the Russian invasion. There are many claims that the RVC are a far-right
group with some extreme ideologies, but as the old saying goes: the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
The RVC's stated goal is defending Ukraine from Russia's invasion and ultimately,
toppling Vladimir Putin and his regime. According to the group, Russia should give up all ambitions
to restore the old Soviet Union and instead focus on improving life for ethnic Russians. Known to
have many neo-Nazi sympathizers, many volunteers had fled Russia as early as the 2000s. Many were
motivated by their belief that Ukraine was a more ethnically 'pure' country with a strong
Slavic heritage. They either moved willingly or fled in a bid to escape prosecution for
their hate or political activities. In their eyes, Vladimir Putin has turned Russia into a corrupt,
multi-national state that has weakened ethnic Russians. When the 2014 invasion of Crimea began,
many who would make up the Russian Volunteer Corps willingly joined far-right Ukrainian
units such as the Azov Regiment, and still hoped to topple Putin and build an
ethnically unified Russia, with a separate nation for ethnic minorities to live in.
There has been significant concern that Ukraine's use of Russian far-right groups will only help to
fuel Putin's propaganda about Ukraine being run by neo-Nazis. There are also concerns of what
will happen in a post-war environment, as the RVC and some similar groups are becoming very
heavily armed through the fighting. With NATO affirming that Ukraine will join the alliance
once the war is over, the nation will have to completely sever ties to these far-right groups,
and there is serious concern of what might happen when it does. For now though,
the enemy of my enemy is my friend, and the RVC has proven useful on the battlefield.
The Freedom of Russia Legion and Russian Volunteer Corps would have
their day on the sun though on May 22nd, when they shattered the illusion of border
security for millions of Russia and nearly caused an international nuclear incident.
Since the start of the war there have been numerous cross-border attacks into Russia,
though all very minor in scope. These have primarily taken place in the
Bryansk, Kursk, and Belgorod Oblasts, with Ukraine denying responsibility for the attacks but also
not fully denying any involvement. The largest attack prior to May 22nd was a brief cross-border
raid by the Russian Volunteer Corps in March of 2023, with a small unit crossing into the Bryansk
Oblast. According to Russian media, the RVC killed two adults and injured a child in a car,
as well as taking residents from the Lubechane and Sushany villages hostage for a brief time.
The Rosgvardia, or Russian national guard, was mobilized to expel the intruders.
On May 22nd, the RVC and the Legion would join forces. Using at least one tank and multiple
armored vehicles, the invading force pushed through a Russian border checkpoint in the
Grayvorosnky district. From there, the force took control of the villages of Kozinka, Gora-Podol,
and Glotovo. Advance units reached all the way to Grayvoron, the capital of the district, with the
intent of creating a 'demilitarized zone' that couldn't be used to launch attacks into Ukraine.
The Russian government denied the attack was taking place, even as citizens uploaded
panicked videos up to Telegram and other social media channels, showing what it's like to get a
fraction of a taste of what Ukrainian civilians have to endure. Locals called for help from the
authorities, but while details remain very foggy as of the writing of this script,
the invasion force seemed to run into only light and token resistance which was easily overcome.
Local governments organized an evacuation of civilians using buses and any means of
available transportation, with the number of evacuees numbering in the hundreds. However, the
greatest concern was the perceived direction of attack of the invasion- which put the Belgorod-22
nuclear weapon storage facility directly in its path. In a panic, the Russian government quickly
began to move nuclear weapons out of the facility. Today, it still remains unknown if the facility
was part of the invasion force's goals, but what is known is that at least one of the confirmed
spearheads of the RVC/Legion forces reached as far as only several miles from the facility. Had they
been able to seize Russian nuclear weapons, it's unknown what would have happened or what the group
would have intended to do with them. Perhaps they would have transferred them to Ukraine,
who would no doubt use them as assurance that Russia not resort to nukes of its own. Or perhaps
they would have held the weapons hostage in a bid to garner demands from the government.
What is likely is that if the group had succeeded, the United States would have
had no choice but to get involved somehow. And given the RVC's far-right ideologies,
there's a chance that US military involvement may actually have been on the side of Russia.
The next day, the Russian Ministry of Defense claimed to have defeated all of the invaders and
either killed them all or driven them back across the border. Nobody bothered to tell the Legion or
RVC though, who launched a drone attack against the FSB building inside the city of Belgorod,
scoring a direct hit. Amusingly, Russian officials claimed that saboteurs had stolen
police uniforms and that all Russian civilians in the affected region should “shoot first and
ask questions later” if they spot a uniformed police officer. There is as of yet no news if
any Russian police officers were accidentally murdered by trigger happy civilians.
Russia scrambled to muster forces to repel the invasion, and launched multiple helicopter
attacks resulting in at least one confirmed downed helicopter. The Russian state also
claimed to have destroyed multiple armored vehicles and captured more, even releasing
images of captured American Humvees as proof. However, the captured vehicles don't bear the
same markings as those clearly seen in use by the invasion forces and show no battle damage,
plus the photos themselves are very closely cropped- prompting many to believe that the
photo op was obviously staged using captured Ukrainian equipment in fighting elsewhere.
At last the invasion force retreated back over the border after a 48 hour
operation. The Russians claimed to have killed nearly all of the invasion force,
and that it had identified all of them as Ukrainian. Meanwhile, the RVC and Legionnaires
claim that they only suffered 2 dead and 10 wounded from the Legion, and 2 wounded from
the Russian Volunteer Corps. In exchange, the RVC and Legion expressed satisfaction with the raid,
claiming to have captured at least one armored vehicle and several prisoners.
The raid on Belgorod was a significant event in the on going Ukrainian war. It highlighted the
critical vulnerability of the Russian motherland itself, and just how poorly prepared Russia
is for a Ukrainian incursion. As the fighting progressed, Russia rushed to mobilize a response
force made up largely of the Rosvgardia and local law enforcement, giving the small invasion of
force of an estimated less than 100 individuals, two days to rampage through the countryside and
allowed them to penetrate Russia within a dozen miles of a nuclear weapons storage facility.
This highlights just how dependent Russia really is on America's pressure on Ukraine
forbidding it from launching cross-border attacks into Russia. Many have questioned
since the raid why Ukraine shouldn't be allowed to fight this war as it sees fit,
especially since Russia's use of stand-off weapons and increasing use of glide bombs
means that it can launch attacks deep into Ukraine from the safety of its own territory.
Yet Ukraine remains completely dependent on the US and its allies, meaning that its hands are
tied. This affords Russia not just the ability to launch attacks from home territory, but the
luxury of not committing significant border forces for security, freeing up thousands to fight on
Ukrainian soil instead. It's hoped that increased support for groups like the Legion and the RVC
could allow them to launch even more attacks into Russia, as the US appears to have no problem with
Russians fighting Russians on their own soil. This could be a significant turning point in the war,
as Russia is forced to remove forces from Ukraine to defend its borders adequately.
With its military already vastly outclassed by Ukraine's smaller, better trained, motivated,
and increasingly better equipped military, the forced removal of thousands of combat troops
and assorted logistics could give Ukraine the edge it needs to quickly win this conflict.
Now go watch Could Russia survive a nuclear war, or click this other video instead!