Russian Rebels' Raid Settlements Just 10 Miles From Nuclear Storage Site

Russian volunteer fighters who staged an incursion from Ukraine across Russia's border are within miles of an empty nuclear storage site.

The Freedom of Russia Legion, Siberian Battalion, and the Russian Volunteer Corps, are fiercely critical of Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion. Last week, they said they had crossed into the Belgorod and Kursk oblasts. On Sunday, the Siberian Battalion said on Telegram that "Russian liberation forces" had taken control of the administration building in the village of Gorkovsky.

The groups staged similar incursions in May 2023. Ukrainian intelligence service had said at the time this had led to Russian forces evacuating nuclear ammunition stockpiles from the Belgorod-22 facility in the region's Grayvoronsky district.

This was not independently verified amid doubts that it could take place unnoticed, while Kremlin-friendly Telegram channel Rybar said at the time nuclear weapons had not been at the site for a long time before the raid.

However, the current proximity of anti-Kremlin formations to the site whose official title is Military Unit 25624 of the Russian military's 12 Chief Directorate was referred to by the Intelschizo account. This posts on X, formerly Twitter, about the war in Ukraine using satellite maps and open-source intelligence.

"(Two) lines of advance towards the now empty tactical nuclear weapons depot of Belgorod 22," the post said next to a map showing terrain where the fighting is taking place near Russian trenches and the Belgorod-22.

"Recent attacks by Ukraine backed Russian Forces took the town of Gorkovksy village, Belgorod region. Both lines of advance from Kozinka and Gorkovsky are 10 miles from the depot," the post added. When contacted by Newsweek, Intelschizo said there was no evidence to indicate that the groups were getting closer.

Meanwhile, Pavel Podvig, an independent analyst based in Geneva where he runs the Russian Nuclear Forces research project, told Newsweek, "I would doubt they would try to reach the place, it's very heavily guarded. Indeed, the guard is the main function of the garrison there." Newsweek has contacted the Russian Defense Ministry for comment.

There is no evidence that the nuclear storage site is being targeted.

Kyrylo Budanov, Ukraine's military intelligence chief, said Saturday that Ukraine would help anti-Kremlin militias in their operations on Russian territory. They were no longer considered a "grouping", but were now "becoming a force."

As Newsweek previously reported, Freedom of Russia Legion volunteer Alexei Baranovsky said that the goal of the formations was to "march on Moscow" and ensure the "liberation of Russia from Putin."

In a video released Saturday, the RDK said that the Russian Ministry of Defense had lied when it said that the formation had been eliminated following last week's incursion.

The clip showed blurred images of soldiers the group says it has captured, as the RDK member called for a meeting with Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov to discuss their fate.

Update 03/18/24, 10:30 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with comment from Pavel Podvig and the X account Intelschizo.