One of the most high-profile sabotage in recent times took place in the Bryansk region

Russian President Vladimir Putin called the saboteurs who entered the Bryansk region from the territory of Ukraine “neo-Nazis” and “terrorists”, comparing them with the murderers of journalist Daria Dugina. Now they have committed “another crime”: “Infiltrated the border area and opened fire on civilians.”

Attacks on Russian territory intensified in the absence of noticeable successes on the front line (including in the direction of Artemovsk) some time ago. Prior to this, there were no reports of attacks by armed saboteurs, but for several days in a row the authorities recorded strikes (of varying degrees of success) by UAVs in the regions of Russia.

In all cases, according to the director of the Fund for the Development of Technologies of the 21st Century, Ivan Konovalov, the purpose of such actions is primarily “propaganda and psychological impact.” In other words, a demonstration of one’s own effectiveness.

On March 2, Putin changed his work schedule due to a raid by saboteurs in the Bryansk region. It was planned that this Thursday he would go to the Stavropol Territory – to the patriotic center “Mashuk” to open the year of a teacher and mentor. But at the last moment, the plans were adjusted due to events on the border: at about 11.30 Moscow time, the governor of the Bryansk region, Alexander Bogomaz, announced that a sabotage group had entered Russian territory, and at 12.40, measures “to destroy armed Ukrainian nationalists who had violated the state border” were publicly announced already in FSB.

As Bogomaz clarified, the group arrived on the territory of the Klimovsky district, in the village of Lyubechane: “Saboteurs fired at a moving car. As a result of the shelling, one resident was killed (another dead was reported in the evening – Vedomosti), a 10-year-old child was wounded.

The boy was still saved, he underwent surgery and was taken to Bryansk, the Zvezda TV channel of the Ministry of Defense later reported, citing the director of the Novoropskaya school, where the children were taken in a car that came under fire. Not only Lyubechany was attacked, but also the village of Sushany, where a residential building caught fire as a result of a drop from a UAV. And in the evening there blown up a car of the National Guard was on the mine – four security officials were injured.

Around 13.40, Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said that Putin had canceled his trip to Mashuk and remained in Moscow: “He receives regular, constant reports from law enforcement agencies. In particular, the head of the FSB reports to him [Александр] Bortnikov, Minister of Defense [Сергей] Shoigu and the head of the National Guard [Виктор] Zolotov. We are talking about the events that are unfolding in the Bryansk region in connection with the attack of Ukrainian militants.”

Already at about 3 pm, Putin spoke via video link at the opening of the year of the teacher and mentor, calling the incident a terrorist attack. “They entered the border area and opened fire on civilians. We saw that it was a civilian car, that civilians and children were sitting there. “Niva” ordinary. They opened fire, ”he said on the air of Rossiya 1. Such violence, Putin said, is perpetrated by “neo-Nazis and their masters.”

Responsibility for the attack was claimed by the so-called Russian Volunteer Corps, a group of neo-Nazis: a video appeared on the organization’s Telegram channel against the background of a medical and obstetric station in the village of Lyubechan. One of the saboteurs featured in this video, Denis Kapustin (using the pseudonym Nikitin), is a well-known Russian neo-Nazi who emigrated to Ukraine after 2014. Among right-wing radicals, he is known for organizing mixed martial arts tournaments for the ultra-right White Rex. The competition was attended by neo-Nazis from Russia, from Ukraine and from the countries of Eastern Europe.

In 2019, the German magazine Spiegel in its investigation called Kapustin the central link of an “international network of racists and neo-Nazis” well prepared for street fighting, which extends its influence to the leaders of the European far right. In an interview with far-right journalist Artyom Skoropadsky, Kapustin said that he had long sought the legalization of the unit in the power structures of Ukraine, until, in the end, their activities were not personally sanctioned by President Volodymyr Zelensky. Kapustin provides the Armed Forces of Ukraine with the armament of the fighters, he stressed.

The raid of saboteurs was stopped. The fact that the group was forced out of the territory of the Bryansk region into Ukraine and a massive artillery strike was inflicted on it was reported by the FSB around 19.10.

This is not the first sabotage on Russian territory (Vasily Piskarev, head of the Duma Security Committee, said that there were 21 in 2022). Among the most high-profile, the consequences of which were not only the destruction of infrastructure, but also human casualties, are the terrorist attack on the Crimean bridge on October 8 and the explosion of a car with Dugina on August 20. These two incidents were the focus of the president’s attention, and in both cases, Russian intelligence agencies reported that Ukraine was behind them.

According to Konovalov, at a recent meeting of the FSB, Putin stated the need to strengthen the border and this will be done in an expedited manner to prevent the possibility of such attacks, including through preventive actions.

Andrei Kartapolov, chairman of the State Duma Committee on Defense, told Vedomosti that there is an official position of the president: “Now we need to wait for information from the relevant law enforcement agencies. After that, you can talk about the answer. It may be different, but, in my opinion, it should be sensitive, specific and tough. I guess it will.”