Reports of Ukraine Offensive in Belgorod Disinformation Ahead of Trump-Putin Call

From early morning on Tuesday, March18, Russian milbloggers began to post reports of increased fighting on the border between Ukraine and the Russian Belgorod region. The pro-Kremlin social media portrayed it either as a new Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU) cross-border offensive or a diversionary attack to allow Kyiv’s forces to escape from encirclement in the adjacent Kursk region or simply a “publicity stunt.”

The milblogger “War Gonzo” claimed on Telegram that the AFU had launched a suicidal attack to draw forces from Kursk, had lost several armored vehicles to Russian artillery strikes and its infantry had retreated on foot into the forest and were under artillery attack.

The “Two Majors” blogger said that Russian border guards and armed force units had repelled the attack in the areas of Prilesye, Grafovka, and Demidovka, destroying three tanks, several infantry fighting vehicles, an engineer demining vehicle, and several all-terrain vehicles.

Komsomolskaya Pravda correspondent Alexander Kots said the AFU lacked the ability to break through the border and said the attack was a provocation aimed at distracting Russian forces in an attempt to join up with Ukrainian forces in Kursk by attacking through the village of Krasnaya Yaruga in the Belgorod region.

Andriy Kovalenko, the head of the Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council Center for Countering Disinformation immediately denied the reports. He said that there had been fighting in the border areas, particularly exchanges of artillery fire ever since the 2022 full-scale invasion.

He said that the Russian reports that Ukraine was escalating the situation was disinformation designed to prepare the ground for the forthcoming telephone conversation between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin:

“Their main information strategy is to accuse Ukraine of not wanting to end the war, although, in fact, they [Russian forces] are attacking along the front, as well as from the air. And it is Putin who is delaying Trump’s proposal to cease fire. Everything is very primitive, but quite typical of the Russians,” Kovalenko said.

The Belgorod regional Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, also reported via Telegram on the “difficult situation” in the region, claiming there had been renewed Ukrainian artillery and drone strikes on the Krasnoyarsk border district after which “All services, primarily the Ministry of Defense, border services, BARS-Belgorod, Orlan, self-defense, the head of the district, the deputy governor, are all at their workplaces, ensuring the safety of residents.”