The Russian Defense Ministry claimed Tuesday to have killed more than 70 “terrorist saboteurs” amid conflicting reports about the fate of anti-Kremlin, Russian militia volunteers who in recent days seized several villages on the Russian side of the border.
The deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, described the volunteers as “scumbags,” adding that “you just have to exterminate them like the rats they are and not even take them prisoner.”
On Monday, the Free Russia Legion and the Russian Volunteer Corps released a video saying they had crossed into Russia and taken control of bordering villages. “The Legion returns home,” armed men in one of the videos said. On Tuesday the legion posted a message on Telegram saying it had liberated more territory and was pushing forward.
The Russian Defense Ministry, however, said Tuesday that the “saboteurs” were blocked and defeated by airstrikes and artillery fire. “The remnants of the nationalists were driven back to the territory of Ukraine, where they continued to be hit by fire until they were completely eliminated,” the ministry said on Telegram.
The ministry claimed over 70 saboteurs were killed and four armored combat vehicles destroyed. It dismissed the attacks as a Ukrainian ruse to distract attention from what Russia claims was the fall of Bakhmut over the weekend.
Developments:
⋅ Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited naval infantry troops at the front line to mark the annual Day of the Ukrainian Marines.
⋅ Several countries, including Poland, have already started training Ukrainian pilots to use U.S.-built F-16 fighter jets, the European Union’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell said. President Joe Biden said last week the U.S. will train Ukrainian pilots.
Hungarian leaders says Ukraine is doomed
Ukraine Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Oleg Nikolenko firmly rejected Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s claim that Ukraine is doomed to lose the war. Speaking Tuesday at the Qatar Economic Forum, Orban argued that Ukraine’s military effort is doomed and sending further aid will only lead to more deaths.
“Emotionally it’s tragic, all of our hearts are with the Ukrainians,” Orban said.
Nikolenko recalled that before the war began some European politicians argued that Ukraine had no chance to hold out for more than 72 hours.
“They were wrong then, and they are wrong now,” Nikolenko said. “Unlike the supporters of capitulation to the enemy without resistance, the Ukrainians will continue to fight until the complete liberation of their territories from Russian occupation.”
Russian media celebrates disputed Bakhmut ‘victory’
Russian TV and tabloids on Tuesday were ecstatically celebrating the Kremlin’s claim that the eastern Ukraine city of Bakhmut had fallen, comparing the disputed victory to the Red Army liberation of Berlin in 1945.
President Vladimir Putin’s congratulatory statement to the troops was highlighted, and announcers emphasized the victory by using the city’s Soviet former name of Artyomovsk. This despite the Ukraine military’s claim that it retains a small part of the city and has retaken villages to the north and south − and could soon encircle the the battered, almost deserted city that before the war was home to more than 70,000 people.
“The myth that Artyomovsk is an unassailable fortress has been crushed,” said the anchor on Channel One, Russia’s most popular state broadcaster. “Those are historic events.”
Footage showed Russian fighters yelling “Victory!” and placing the Russian tricolor flag and the black flag of the private military contractor Wagner atop a severely damaged high-rise building. Wagner forces led the months-long push to seize the city, and their leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said his troops will leave the city to be occupied by Russian Defense Ministry forces. Those forces previously have struggled to hold ground taken by Wagner.
Contributing: The Associated Press
