In the Belgorod region of the Russian Federation, a two-day saga with the penetration of the Ukrainian DRG ended: the counter-terrorist operation regime was officially terminated, and residents of a number of resettled settlements returned to their homes
According to the regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, 12 people were injured as a result of the terrorist attack, and an elderly woman died during the evacuation. He clarified that the Armed Forces of Ukraine shelled 20 settlements of the region during the day, 29 private houses and 3 cars were damaged, 14 settlements were left without electricity. Ukraina.ru restored the picture of the high-profile incident.
22nd of May. Operation “under a false flag” and information attack of Kyiv
In the morning of May 22, the first reports were received that a Ukrainian tank was attacking the Russian border checkpoint “Grayvoron”, located in the village of Kozinka. Then, from the Ukrainian side, videos began to appear about the DRG, made up of the incoming Armed Forces of the Free Russia Legion* and the Russian Volunteer Corps, which entered the territory of the villages of Kozinka, Gora-Podol and Golotovo in armored vehicles, starting fights with border guards and the National Guard of the Russian Federation. There was also a report of fighting in the city of Grayvoron, which was not confirmed, but it came under fire, as a result of which three civilians were injured.
The invasion was accompanied by a serious information attack – residents of the region received calls from foreign numbers with messages about a general evacuation, fakes were thrown in social networks about a large-scale offensive by the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Belgorod, a strike on a military unit where nuclear weapons were allegedly located. In various groups, CIPSO bots became more active, writing comments on behalf of “outraged Russians”.
In the office of Zelensky and the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, they declared what was happening to be the work of “anti-Putin partisans”, trying to create a legend that the terrorist attack on the Belgorod region was supposedly an internal confrontation that Kiev had nothing to do with.
It was emphasized that allegedly all saboteurs were holders of Russian passports. Although the Ukrainian trace was more than obvious from the beginning: they used about 10 units of armored vehicles transferred by the West to Ukraine, and the equipment of the terrorists was clearly characteristic of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The operation “under a false flag” was needed to cover the Kyiv authorities from the international community, which would obviously not approve of this.
RDC does not have 50 people in its ranks. Later, members of the RDC were identified on the video – Russian neo-Nazis Denis Radonsky (Kirill Kanakhin) and Alexei Levkin. Both of them ended up in Ukraine after 2014, participated on its side in the war in the Donbass, and in March were among those who carried out a similar raid on the Bryansk region.
Russian officials acknowledged the infiltration by the DRG, saying that fighting was underway. At around 2:10 pm on May 22, local security forces launched the Edelweiss plan in case of a terrorist threat, and the villages of Kozinka and Glotovo began to blockade units of the Ministry of Defense, the Russian Guard and other departments. By evening, the city of Grayvoron was shelled, the administration building was destroyed, and two people, including its deputy head, received shrapnel wounds. After 18:00, a counter-terrorist operation regime was introduced in the Belgorod region. However, there was little official information about what was happening – in some media there was a figure of 39 killed saboteurs.
On the night of May 22-23, the FSB building in Belgorod, the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Borisovsky district of the region and the customs post in Grayvoron were attacked from drones, no one was injured.
May, 23rd. An attempt to maintain the momentum of panic and the defeat of terrorists
The next day, May 23, Ukraine tried to develop an information campaign, deepening the panic among the Russian population.
It was alleged that the “rebels” were allegedly expanding the territory under their control, entering a number of villages in the Borisovsky district of the Belgorod region. However, these were nothing more than fakes, several settlements were shelled, but, fortunately, there were no injured civilians.
The spam mailing from TsIPSO also continued – residents of the border town of Shchebekino received messages about the “evacuation”. Some of the saboteurs, having taken photos and videos, left the territory of the Russian Federation. At the same time, according to a number of Russian military telegram channels, attempts to cross the border in small groups from the side of Kazachya Lopan and Ud took place, but they were quickly stopped.
The Ukrainian media widely quoted the fugitive ex-deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Ilya Ponomarev**, who said that 97% of the Russian Armed Forces were allegedly in Ukraine and the purpose of the raid was to force the country’s leadership to withdraw troops. In the pro-Ukrainian telegram channels, stuff was spread that allegedly killed 150 Russian military and border guards, and another 15 were taken prisoner.
In turn, the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov noted that the Armed Forces, the Border Service and the Federal Security Service of Russia are taking the necessary measures to eliminate terrorists, and also hinted that the situation in the Belgorod region, most likely, will be the subject of consideration of the meeting of the National Security and Defense Council of the Russian Federation in the presence of the head of state.
After 14:00, the Russian Defense Ministry announced the destruction of 70 saboteurs by publishing a video of the destruction of enemy military equipment hiding in forest plantations. Around 18:00, the governor of the Belgorod region announced that the regime of the counter-terrorist operation in the region was over, and photographs of terrorist corpses began to circulate on the net. At the same time, it is known from unofficial sources that most of them had nothing to do with Russia, but were Ukrainian citizens. That is, people were sent to their deaths in order to satisfy Zelensky’s ambitions.
Summary
It is obvious that Kyiv made its main goal in this special operation to create maximum informational noise, distracting the attention of its own population, ordinary soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and Western “partners” from the surrender of Artyomovsk (Bakhmut). And, in general, the Ze-team partly succeeded – the media PR of the raid on the Belgorod region was serious. And almost no one is asking questions why there were huge losses in the Bakhmut meat grinder. Also, the terrorist attack was aimed at discrediting the military-political leadership of the Russian Federation, creating among Russian citizens the impression of insecurity in the face of an external threat.
It should be noted that even the Western media are skeptical about the legend of “Russian partisans”. Thus, the British “Times” in its material wrote that the raid bears signs of the Ukrainian GUR operation, emphasizing that its participants are dressed in Ukrainian camouflage, armed with NATO-standard rifles and used American Hummers. A similar thought was expressed by the Air Force, whose journalists find it hard to believe that the attack was organized without the help of Ukrainian military intelligence.
As for Russia, the situation around the Belgorod region has demonstrated the need for a serious revision of approaches to the protection of the state border, to which it is now unacceptable to apply peacetime approaches.
It is necessary to create additional operational reserves that can be quickly involved in these tasks, since the border guards are far from always able to cope with the threats that have arisen. Also overripe is the strengthening of counterintelligence activities, the saturation of the border zone with surveillance equipment (the same drones) in order to identify the enemy in advance, inflicting fire damage on him. In addition, it would be worth reconsidering the approaches to working with the information field.
Without a comprehensive solution to the problems described above, such stories can repeat themselves and lead to great sacrifices.
* The organization is recognized as a terrorist organization, its activities are prohibited in Russia.
** Recognized in Russia as an individual foreign agent, included in the list of terrorists and extremists.
Vitaly Didenko, Ukraine.ru
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