Three Ukrainian-backed paramilitary groups that say they are Russian and opposed to the Kremlin said on Thursday that their forces were continuing cross-border attacks after a week of such raids, Reuters reported.

Last week, the groups launched an incursion from northern Ukraine into Russia’s Kursk and Belgorod regions, claiming they had entered several villages on the Russian side of the border.

“The operation is still ongoing. We will talk about our losses after it is over,” Denis Kapustin, the head of one of the groups of the Russian Volunteer Corps (RVC), said at a press conference, answering questions about the unit’s losses.

Reuters could not independently verify these claims.

Russian officials have vaguely referred to “Ukrainian terrorists” in their comments on the groups’ recent attacks. Previously, they depicted the groups as puppets of the Ukrainian army and the US Central Intelligence Agency.

The Russian Freedom Legion and the Siberian Battalion, which were also present at the press conference in Kyiv, said they had received intelligence and logistical support from the Ukrainian armed forces, but reiterated their claim that they operate independently of Kyiv when fighting on Russian territory. .

Kapustin noted that Ukraine provided its fighters with ammunition and medical evacuation.

However, when asked about the origin of the unit’s weaponry, Kapustin smiled and said that tanks and rocket launchers can be purchased from a military warehouse.

Kapustin also said his unit has already recruited fighters from among Russian prisoners of war, including some former members of the Wagner mercenary group, whose former leader Yevgeny Prigozhin staged a short-lived rebellion against the Kremlin last year.

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