The Legion "Freedom of Russia" and the "Russian Volunteer Corps" (RVC) informed that they are continuing the operation to "liberate" Belgorod region. They do not provide any details, the Russian media are also silent. This may indicate that the formations still remain in the region.
RVC published a video with soldiers on an armored personnel carrier, and its commander Denys Nikitin posted a photo with one of the soldiers on Instagram 5 hours ago.
Meanwhile, a video from the alleged border checkpoint "Graivoron" is being published on social networks, on the wall of which the inscription "Greetings from Bakhmut" can be seen. Its destruction was reported yesterday. There were also videos of a supposedly killed Russian border guard, an armored personnel carrier seized from the Russians by RVC soldiers (a collection has already been opened for its repair) and a lost Ukrainian MaxxPro armored personnel carrier.
The governor of the region Vyacheslav Hladkov reported in the morning about the shelling of a number of settlements and the activity of "enemy" UAVs. He also announced at least 12 wounded civilians and the continuation of the "counter-terrorist operation" regime. According to him, the cleanup is in progress — residents of the city of Graivoron and eight surrounding villages have been evicted.
Putinʼs spokesman Dmytro Peskov has already expressed "deep concern" over the raid by Russian volunteers.
- On the morning of May 22, the "Russian Volunteer Corps" and the Legion "Freedom of Russia" announced that they had entered the territory of Russia and were carrying out combat missions there. RVC has published several videos in which you can see fighters against the background of road signs of Lyubimovka, Bezlyudovka, Churovychy settlements of Belgorod and Bryansk regions.
- After that, videos of shelling, presumably of the "Graivoron" checkpoint, as well as fighters with equipment, began to appear on social networks. The video also captured the operation of military helicopters and at least one tank with the flag of Ukraine. The main clashes unfolded in the Belgorod region.
- RVC and the legion reported on the "liberation" of the border villages of Kozinka, Podil Gora and the battles for the city of Graivoron.
- In a comment to "Babel" the representative of the Ukrainian SSR Andriy Yusov stated that the offensive in the region is carried out exclusively by fighters of the Legion and RVC — that is, citizens of Russia. They are vacating their territory and creating a "security zone" to protect Ukrainian civilians from shelling. He called the raid a natural consequence of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
- Subsequently, the representative of the Main Directorate of Intelligence Andriy Yusov stated that the evacuation of the Belgorod-22 facility, where the Russians store ammunition for nuclear weapons, has begun in the Belgorod region. Military unit 25624 is located there.