Russian energy sites hit as anti-Kremlin groups mount raids from Ukraine

Russia suffered damaging drone strikes and cross-border raids by Russian anti-Kremlin militants based in Ukraine, just days before a choreographed presidential election that is bound to extend the 24-year rule of authoritarian leader Vladimir Putin.

Moscow officials said air defences shot down more than two dozen drones over at least nine Russian regions on Tuesday. The attacks set fire to at least two energy facilities in the Oryol and Nizhny Novgorod regions, and reportedly inflicted serious damage on Russia’s second-largest oil refinery.

At least one drone blew out windows in the regional administration building in Belgorod, capital of a Russian region of the same name that borders Ukraine and was attacked by Russian anti-Putin gunmen who crossed the frontier early on Tuesday.

Three groups of Russian fighters based in Ukraine posted footage on social media that they said showed them inside Russia. One of them, the Freedom of Russia Legion, claimed to have taken full control of the village of Tyotkino in Kursk region, which neighbours Belgorod, but later said the battle for the village was continuing.

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Another group, the Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK) posted video of what it said was one of its tanks firing as it crossed into Russian territory, and other drone footage that purportedly showed Russian troops fleeing positions and leaving behind “settlements, equipment and above all [Russian] citizens, abandoned and not needed”.

The third group involved, the Siberian Battalion, said: “Ballots and polling stations in this case are fiction. You can really change your life for the better only with weapons in your hands. Anyone who does not accept a life of poverty under tyranny should make the right choice.”

Russian officials said the attacks had been repelled and that 234 militants had been killed and 12 tanks and other armoured vehicles destroyed.

Russia is gearing up for a tightly controlled presidential election this weekend that is being stage-managed to deliver another six-year term for Mr Putin. He has no credible opposition, all candidates allowed to run support his invasion of Ukraine, and his erstwhile strongest opponent, Alexei Navalny, died in an Arctic prison last month.

“This is only the first day [of the operation]. But the elections, as we know, are only at the end of the week ... All the most interesting things are yet to come,” Alexei Baranovsky, a spokesperson for the Freedom of Russia Legion, told Reuters.

[ Daniel McLaughlin: Russian fighters in Ukraine's ranks predict bloody end for Putin regime ]

Alexander, the RDK’s chief of staff who uses the call sign “Fortuna”, told The Irish Times last month that the group’s cross-border raids forced Russia to move troops away from the frontline in eastern Ukraine, and showed Russians they were wrong to accept Mr Putin’s autocratic rule in exchange for a promise of security and stability.

Russia said an Ilyushin Il-76 military cargo plane crashed shortly after take-off from a base in the Ivanovo region with 15 people on board. Some Russian media said all passengers and crew were killed. Video posted on social media showed the plane flying low with one engine ablaze before hitting the ground.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state, sought to soothe criticism from Ukraine and its allies of Pope Francis’s suggestion that Kyiv should find “the courage of the white flag” and negotiate with Russia. He told Italian media that “first of all it should be the aggressors who stop firing.”

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