Russia: U.S distances itself from Belgorod incursion

The United States has distanced itself from a cross-border incursion into parts of Russia’s Belgorod region.

The U.S 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.”

Parts of the border region of Belgorod came under attack on Monday, in one of the most major 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.

Villages in Belgorod near the border were evacuated after coming under shellfire. 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.

Also Read: Russia Crushes Cross-Border Incursion From Ukraine

Commenting on the hostilities in Belgorod, Russia’s defence ministry said a “unit of the Ukrainian nationalist formation” had invaded its territory to carry out attacks.

As well as killing dozens of what it described as “Ukrainian terrorists” in artillery and air strikes, the ministry claimed to have driven the rest of the fighters back to the Ukrainian border.

But Ukrainian officials said the attackers were Russians, from groups known as the Liberty of Russia Legion and the Russian Volunteer Corps (RVC).

The cross-border incursion may be embarrassing for Moscow, and go some way to offset the bad optics for Ukraine of reportedly losing control of Bakhmut after months of intense and bloody fighting.

It is also likely to be part of Ukraine’s shaping operations ahead of its coming counter-offensive, aiming to draw Russian troops away from the south where Kyiv is expected to attack. But it is not a development that is likely to be welcomed by the West.

Zainab Sa’id