The Ukrainian Army Invades the Russian Federation – Again

Ukrainian tank and armored infantry units invading Russia’s western Belgorod Oblast have held a modest but sensitive chunk of Russian Federation territory against Kremlin counterattacks for the past 96 hours, official and independent news sources said on Monday.

The attack led initially by light infantry units advancing on foot through woods and farm fields has broken into the village of Demidovka some 5 kilometers (3 miles) inside Russia and held it against quick response forces sent to that sector, reports said.

The incursion came one week after the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) abandoned almost all of a Luxembourg-sized salient inside Russia’s Kursk region, in a clear defeat for Kyiv.

The Belgorod attack, repeating armed Ukrainian violation of Russia’s border, appears to be a much smaller operation, with Ukrainian forces having captured by Monday between 20-50 square kilometers (8-19 square miles) of Russian real estate in the new incursion, battle reports said.

Reports from both sides confirmed the Ukrainian success but conflicted over its scale.

The pro-Moscow milblogger Gennadiy Alekhin on Monday wrote that the Ukrainian advance had turned the international frontier opposite Demidovka “into a giant gray zone” and that house-to-house fighting was in progress inside the village itself.

Contradicting Alekhin, Russian milblogger Boris Rozhin, in a Monday situation update, said: “The settlement (Demidovka) is under Ukrainian control. Russian forces withdrew from the area, allowing the enemy to occupy it. Additionally, Ukrainians are clearing mines and removing “dragon’s teeth” barriers on the border. Russian forces are now counterattacking the settlement.”

Alekhin claimed one of the attacking Ukrainian units was a light infantry formation called the Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK), a unit raised in Ukraine from Russian nationals opposing the Putin regime.

The RDK is a light infantry unit specializing in patrolling and raiding. RDK internal social media monitored by Kyiv Post showed the unit had been in training until mid-March and then stopped publishing day-to-day updates.

Official Russian information platforms acknowledged the cross-border attack on Friday, but initially claimed it was repelled. State-mandated evacuations of civilians from Demidovka and adjoining villages were announced on Sunday.

Ukrainian milbloggers have reported 225th Assault infantry regiment, a crack outfit armed with US-made Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, and elements of the 414th Unmanned Aircraft Brigade a/k/a “Ptakhy Madyara,” one of Ukraine’s best-known strike drone units, are in the Belgorod sector and backing up attacks there.

The 414th Brigade commander, Robert Brovdi, in a Sunday statement, said his robot aircraft were mining roads that Russian forces might use for counterattacks up to 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Demidovka. 

Multiple Russian sources, including Alekhin, confirmed approach roads to the battle area could be contaminated with land mines dropped by Ukrainian drones.

Alekhin said Ukrainian robot aircraft had established “drone umbrella” air superiority over the battle area and that even civilian vehicles moving in the sector were being hunted by first-person-view FPV drones.

But powerful Russian reserves – including naval infantry, paratroopers, and Chechen “Akhmat” paramilitary police – were moving to the sector and Russian artillery and combat jets were attacking the Ukrainians, who would be destroyed, he said.

Both sides reported more fighting in mixed farmland-wooded territory some 5 kilometers (3 miles) south of Demidovka centered around a hamlet called Grafovka.

Ukrainian milbloggers identified 237th Tank Regiment, 3rd Motor Rifle Division, and 177th Marine Infantry Brigade has the formations with troops deployed around Demidovka and Grafovka, but there was no outside confirmation.

Pro-Ukrainian “X” channels, overnight on Sunday-Monday, reported that during fighting around Demidovka, a Russian four-star general named Aleksandr Lapin had disappeared in combat and possibly had been killed in action.

The report was widely shared across Ukrainian social media but there was no confirmation. A top commander of Russia’s initial invasion of northeast Ukraine during February-May 2022, Lapin is wanted by Ukrainian prosecutors for dozens of civilian deaths caused by Russian air and missile strikes against homes and businesses in the city of Kharkiv.

Russia’s Ministry of Defense – an information source not known for its reliability over the more than three years of the Kremlin’s second invasion of Ukraine – on Monday, reported Ukrainian forces around Belgorod had been decimated:

“Divisions of the ‘North’ troop command destroyed concentrations of manpower and equipment of four AFU mechanized brigades, an assault regiment three territorial defense brigades… The losses of the enemy amounted to more than 175 servicemen, 2 tanks, 4 armored fighting vehicles, 18 cars, and 4 artillery pieces, including a 155mm self-propelled artillery installation ‘Caesar’ manufactured by France. Also, an ammunition depot was destroyed.”

Kyiv Post has been unable to find evidence corroborating the Kremlin claims.

AFU statements on fighting around Belgorod on Monday said Ukrainian lines were holding and that an offensive operation still was in progress.

The ongoing battles in Russia’s Belgorod region came against a background of reports over the weekend of rare, small-scale Ukrainian ground gains in other sectors along the Russo-Ukrainian War’s 1,600-kilometer-long (994-mile-long) fighting front.

In the Luhansk region, the Kyiv-raised 3rd Assault Brigade reported and published video confirming it had liberated a village called Nadiya in 30 hours of hard fighting. The operation was well-planned and Ukrainian casualties were low, unit media outlets said.

In the eastern Pokrovsk-Avdiivka sector, the main focus of Russia’s offensive into Ukraine’s Donbas region for more than a year, Ukraine’s 24th Mechanized Brigade counterattacked inside the city of Chasiv Yar. The advance was supported by special operations troops and pushed Ukrainian lines a kilometer (0.6 miles) eastward, the usually reliable battle location tracker DeepState reported on Monday.

Russia’s Defense Ministry contradicted that, publishing images of TOS-2 heavy flamethrower rockets pounding farm fields, and in a Monday situation update claimed Russian forces were advancing relentlessly in Chasiv Yar. Both sides agreed that the fighting was centered on the ruined premises of a ceramics factory in the center of the city.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday traveled to the frontline city of Pokrovsk to discuss defense operations with local commanders, a statement from the Presidential website said.

Ukraine’s Army General Staff, in a Sunday situation update, recorded 140 combat clashes across the front, of which 60 were in the Pokrovsk sector. In the Kursk sector where Ukrainian forces still hold a sliver of Russian territory, 17 assaults were recorded, all repelled by Kyiv’s troops, that statement said.

Zelensky met with combat commanders and drone pilots, giving some medals in an awards ceremony. AFU combat efficiency is directly dependent on the skills and equipment in Ukrainian drone units, Zelensky stated.