U.S. Denies Involvement in Belgorod ‘Paramilitary’ Fighting, Warns Against ‘Bogus’ War Images

The United States has moved to distance itself from an apparent counter-invasion of Russian territory bordering Ukraine this week, saying it had not given permission for donated military equipment to be transferred to “so-called paramilitary organisations”.

After months of talking about taking the fight back to Russia after their invasion of Ukraine, some concrete movement in that direction appears to have been attempted this week, with what is claimed to have been an “incursion” into Russian territory. Russian claims about the nature of the attack in the Belgorod region, which they alledge was the work of Ukrainian “subversives” and “saboteurs”, led to instant rebuttals by Kyiv who denied being directly responsible.

Ukrainian authorities have insisted all those involved in the fighting are Russian citizens in an “armed guerrilla movement”. The United States has now been moved to deny involvement after the Russian government released images and videos appearing to show American-made armoured cars as having been involved.

While cautioning against believing potentially “bogus images” right away, saying the U.S. did not yet trust the “veracity” of what Russia had put out, and remarking it was “something we’ll look into” further, Pentagon Spokesman Brigadier General Patrick Ryder said the U.S had not given permission to Ukraine to give military equipment away to others.

Calling questions over what was happening in Belgorod “hypothetical”, Ryder told journalists in Washington: “I will say that we can confirm the U.S. government has not approved any third-party transfers of equipment to paramilitary organisations outside the Ukrainian armed forces. Nor has the Ukrainian government requested any such transfers.”

The Brigadier General said Ukraine has been “regularly” told the equipment being given to them by the U.S. was for “use inside Ukraine” and for defence only. He continued: “When you see imagery like that, that’s something we’ll look into, I don’t know if it’s true or not, in terms of the veracity of that imagery… At this time we have not authorised any transfers of equipment, they have not asked for transfer of equipment to so-called paramilitary organisations. And we have put in place some very strict protocols in terms of end-use monitoring”.

Images published by Russian officials, including the governor of Belgorod, show a variety of American-made military equipment damaged and abandoned, allegedly in the Belgorod region. Among the vehicles claimed to have been captured by the Russians are MaxxPro MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected) armoured cars, and several ‘Humvee’ trucks, which have been photographed with varying degrees of damage.

Large numbers of these vehicles have been given to the Ukrainian government.

Russia also claims to have killed 70 insurgents in the Belgorod region. While fighting appears to be all but over in the area — Russia claims to have ended the state of emergency there giving the police and army extra ‘counter-terrorism’ powers, for instance — there were reportedly concentrated attacks by air on the Russian territory overnight. “There were a large number of drone attacks. Air defence systems handled most of them, but there was damage in Belgorod”, the regional governor said.

Russia claims the outages of power, water, and cellphone connectivity in the area is down to the work of Ukrainian saboteurs.

The nature of the groups who are said to have attacked Russian villages inside Russia this week has been receiving more attention in the media, highlighting the degree to which — once widely discussed — the West appears to be arming politically very extreme groups to fight its enemies.

As reported this week, the two groups of Russian, anti-Putin fighters credited by Ukraine with the Belgorod incursion are the “Freedom of Russia Legion” and “Russian Volunteer Corps”. The Volunteer Corps at least was described as “far-right Russian extremists who have links with Ukrainian far-right groups”. The Financial Times, the UK business-focussed, strongly pro-globalisation newspaper heads up its report on the Belgorod skirmish by pointing out the groups doing the fighting against Russia are “Far-right militias”.

The paper claims to have been in contact with a leader of one of the group, who confirmed to them they possessed American military vehicles while declining to say how they acquired them.

The BBC meanwhile notes fighters’ links to “far right extremism”, which they say will fuel Russia’s claim that their invasion of Ukraine is to “de-Nazify” the country. Vice notes “hardcore fascist” involvement in the anti-Putin groups, including one leader who is the “founder of Asgardsrei, an annual black metal festival in Ukraine that serves as a networking event for neo-Nazis”.