Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Will Putin and his propaganda not use this to mobilize more people as this is an attack to Russia? Attack by Russians themselves, but attack never less. Dmitriy The Clown-Medvedev will probably suggest to nuke Belgorod.

no, because NATO should be dissolved, remember?

helicopter down, maybe this was a trap?

According to various sources right now in Belgorod the Russians are blowing their own bridges to try and stop the advances and Russian civilians are either evacuating or trying to get into air raid shelters!

Russians moved nuclear weapons from Belogrod

The "independent russian insurgents" are on video using US MRAPs and HMMWVs

If Ukraine turns a blind eye to activity like this they'll risk western support.

The Americans were crystal clear nothing is to happen or be facilitated in happening on Russian territory.

Ukraine has built up the trust it needs through hard work and diplomacy.

It's hard to take assurances when you see stuff like this which at best is turning a blind eye on their own border.

How many troops have these freedom fighters?

Russians part of the Ukrainian military using equipment donated by the West likely with caveats attached to their use in another foreign country even if it's Russia

The "second best army in the world" are on video using Iranian drones and missiles.

I don't think anyone is disputing Iranian support for Russia.

Anyway, if this is a western backed, and Ukrainian top-level supported event, hats off to them. Kind of brilliant really.

Sky news take on things. Not Ukrainians but Russians , the leader of one of the groups is a Neo Nazi according to sky news

Who are the groups supposedly behind incursions into Russia's Belgorod region?Analysis by Diana Magnay, Russia correspondent 

Murky goings-on in Russia's Belgorod region, just across the border from Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine.

The Kremlin says a group of armed Ukrainian saboteurs have infiltrated Russian territory and that a combination of Russian armed forces are working to "eliminate" them, adding that the president has been informed.

Aerial videos posted to social media show fighting in a number of border villages, with Russian Mi-8 helicopters deployed. In one video, a helicopter appears to be releasing anti-missile decoy flares as it flies above a residential area.

Two groups calling themselves the "Russian Volunteer Corps" and the "Freedom of Russia Legion" say they are behind the incursions.

Video posted to the Russian Volunteer Corps Telegram channel shows blurry night-time footage of a group of men holding the RVC crest beside the signpost to the Russian border village of Bezliudovka.

"The Russian Volunteer Corps is back at home," they write. "The fight continues".

The Russian Volunteer Corps came to attention in March this year when they launched a daring cross-border attack into the neighbouring Russian region of Bryansk.

Led by a well-known Russian neo-Nazi called Denis Kapustin, they are based in Ukraine but say their ultimate goal is the elimination of the Putin regime.

This time they appear to have joined forces with the so-called Freedom of Russia Legion, which shares a similar aim.

In a video posted to their Telegram channel, six armed men, one wearing the Ukrainian yellow and blue colours on his uniform, call on Russians to take responsibility for their future, saying "we are the same Russians as you are" and that the "dictatorship of the Kremlin has to end".

Mikhail Podalyok, who advises the Ukrainian president, wrote on Twitter that Ukraine had nothing to do with the attacks but was watching the situation in Belgorod with interest. 

"The only driving political force in a totalitarian country of tightened screws is always an armed guerrilla movement," he wrote.

Ukrainian media outlet Hromadske quoted the country's military intelligence as saying the aim of the operation was to create a "security zone" to protect Ukrainians from cross-border attacks by Russia.

Russia's military has spent considerable effort over the past months constructing trenches and lines of Dragon Teeth defences along its border with Ukraine and further into Russian-occupied territories.

It will come as some embarrassment that they are so easily breached.

The Kremlin says the attacks are simply an attempt to divert attention from the situation in and around Bakhmut.

Belgorod incursion may not be the work of Kyiv, but it will suit their needs well ahead of counteroffensiveAnalysis by Dominic Waghorn, international affairs editor

These kinds of operations may well increase in number.

The murk is only going to deepen; the fog of war thickens as Ukraine's much-vaunted counteroffensive approaches.

Ukraine has begun shaping operations, testing Russia's defences, probing weaknesses, attacking Russian logistics and supply lines.

It is also operating psyops operations to disconcert the enemy and create fear among its ranks. 

The incursion into the Belgorod region appears to be the work of disaffected Russians basing themselves in northern Ukraine under Kyiv's protection.

But the impact of a shadowy cross-border operation shrouded in mystery will suit Ukraine's needs very well. 

It will have happened with Kyiv's approval almost certainly and will help its ongoing efforts to unnerve and menace the Russians as they brace themselves for Ukraine's big push whenever that comes.