Video Shows Pro-Kyiv Fighters Blow Up Russian Warehouses

A pro-Ukrainian Russian militia unit said Thursday that its fighters destroyed two of Moscow's ammunition warehouses in Russia's Kursk region near the Ukrainian border.

The Freedom of Russia Legion (LSR), a volunteer militia group that is fighting alongside Ukrainians in the war with Russia, shared on Thursday a video to its social accounts showing the moment that a drone camera captured the destruction of the ammunition depots. The group said the warehouses were in the village of Tetkino in southwestern Russia.

"While Putin's army is destroying civilian homes, Legion artillerymen destroyed 2 ammunition depots of Putin's combat in Tetkino at once," the LSR wrote in a post alongside the video on X (formerly Twitter). "It burns beautifully."

The LSR is one of several Russian volunteer paramilitary units fighting on behalf of the Ukrainians against Moscow's troops. The group said on Tuesday that its fighters, along with members of the Russian Volunteer Corps militia group, had entered Russian territory through the Belgorod and Kursk regions in armored vehicles. In the online message, the LSR said it was "on the attack."

The LSR also claimed full control of the village of Tyotkino on Tuesday, although Newsweek was unable to independently verify the claim. Russia's Defense Ministry said earlier that day that it had fended off attacks from "Ukrainian terrorist groups" in the region.

Newsweek emailed Russia's Ministry of Defense for comment.

One of LSR's volunteers, Alexei Baranovsky, told Newsweek earlier this week that the militias' attack on Russian territory was a surprise to President Vladimir Putin's soldiers, who "did not expect these breakthroughs in two separate regions simultaneously, so let's see how this situation unfolds."

Baranovsky added that the rebels' ultimate goal was to eventually "march on Moscow" and achieve "the ensuing liberation of Russia from Putin."

"We may not be able to pull it off now, but that is our overarching mission," he said.

The recent string of attacks on Russian territory come just days ahead of the country's next presidential election, in which Putin is certain to win reelection. Baranovsky told Newsweek that launching attacks ahead of the federal election was timely.

While the militias "may not be able to stop the federal election," he said, the groups "can disrupt the regional votes, so we are doing what we can by bringing this 'air of freedom' to at least some parts of the country."

Cross-border attacks are not new along Russia's shared border with Ukraine. Several raids were launched on the Belgorod region in 2023, and Baranovsky told Newsweek last summer that such attacks were proof that Putin's military is stretched thin.

"The reaction of the Russian government and the armed forces on the rebel invasion to the Belgorod region was not weak," he said in June 2023. "On the contrary, Putin's army is trying its best."