Russian Volunteer Corps coordinated operation in Russia's Bryansk Oblast with Ukraine – movement's leader

Denis Nikitin, the commander of the Russian Volunteer Corps (RVC), has said that the Ukrainian authorities were aware of the RVC's operation in Bryansk Oblast, Russia.

Source: Nikitin in an interview with the Financial Times

Details: Nikitin said that the operation was allegedly "agreed [with Ukrainian authorities], otherwise it couldn’t have happened."

Quote: "How do you imagine that I passed through the dark of night there? There are mined bridges, there are cameras, heat-seeking drones, there are hidden open observation points. If I did not co-ordinate it with anyone [in Ukraine’s military – FT] ... 

I think we would simply be destroyed."

More details: Nikitin stated that about 45 people took part in the operation, many of them members of a partisan underground network in Russia.

He also said that there was indeed a firefight in one of the villages, but, as movement’s leader states, he was not aware of any civilian casualties.

Quote: "They have felt how defenceless they are. We were running around and working in a border zone that should be under the strictest protection.

The main thing was to remind Russians that you don’t have to live in shackles, put up with and participate in someone else’s war carrying out someone else’s will. You can and must take up arms. We will support everyone who wants to remove these Kremlin usurpers from power."

Background: 

• On the morning of 2 March 2023, the governor of Russia's Bryansk Oblast that borders Ukraine, reported that a Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance group allegedly had entered the region, took local civilians hostage and shot at a car.
• This information was quickly spread by propaganda media outlets, but controversial details had been posted then. Amidst this, rumours surfaced that Putin would hold an emergency meeting of his Security Council, but his press service denied this.
• At the same time, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine reported that the situation on the border with Russia was under control, and the information suggesting that there is some "Ukrainian reconnaissance and sabotage group" on the territory of the Russian Federation was an information provocation of the aggressor country.
• Later, the so-called Russian Volunteer Corps declared that it was not a "Ukrainian reconnaissance and sabotage group", but their soldiers who entered the territory of the Russian Federation on 2 March to show that free Russian people with weapons in their hands can fight against Putin's regime.

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