“We have ambitious plans”
Russian paramilitaries announce “surprise”.
7/9/2023 4:42 am
Putin opponents from Russia are also fighting on the Ukraine side. Their goal is the liberation of the entire border region, a spokesman for the “Legion Freedom of Russia” tells the British “Observer”. Accordingly, further attacks on Russian territory are imminent.
According to a spokesman, the paramilitary Russian volunteer battalion “Legion Freedom of Russia” is planning further actions in the Russian border area. “There will be another surprise in the coming month or so,” Maximillian Andronnikov, who calls himself Caesar, told the British Sunday newspaper “The Observer”.
“This will be our third mission,” he said. After that there will be a fourth and a fifth. “We have ambitious plans. We want to liberate our entire area,” the spokesman continued. The “Legion of Freedom of Russia” consists of Russian nationalists who are currently fighting on the side of Ukraine.
Already in May and June, fighters of the “Legion” together with the “Russian Volunteer Corps” took part in attacks in the Russian border region of Belgorod near Ukraine. According to the Ukrainian secret service, such operations are intended, among other things, to “liberate the area from the so-called Putin regime”. The government in Kiev stressed that it had nothing to do with the attacks.
Vehicles from Russian stocks
According to Andronnikov, his militia is dependent on the help of the Ukrainian military, but would make independent decisions on operations on Russian territory. The Legion’s armored vehicles would mostly come from Russian stocks captured from Ukraine, he told the newspaper.
Andronnikov sees Russian President Vladimir Putin as weakened after the halted uprising of the Wagner group led by mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin at the end of June. According to the Observer, he expects Putin’s government to collapse by the end of 2024. There is dissatisfaction in the Russian army because many soldiers who have joined the military for financial reasons have not been paid: “There is a huge money problem. “
Paramilitary units such as the “Legion Freedom of Russia” are accused of having links to right-wing extremist organizations. In an interview with The Observer, Andronnikov described himself as a “constitutional monarchist” who admired Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher. In his unit, people of left and right-wing views would fight, as well as disappointed supporters of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.