2023 Belgorod Oblast attack - Wikipedia

That shape tho.

The fucking nerve.

Could you clear up the background and motive of this group to me? Because there's a bunch of stuff I don't understand.

1) Are these people Russian or Ukrainian (by citizenship)?
2) Are they from the Russian side of the region or did they break through into Russia from Ukraine?
3) Who supports them? How and from whom did they get their weapons and vehicles? Clearly not from the Ukrainian government as that would be a counter attack on Russian soil.
4) What are their motives? Support Ukraine? Establish their own "state" within Russia?

1. They're Russians.

2. They broke through into Russia from Ukraine.

3. They almost certainly got their supplies from Ukraine. There are 3 factions at play here, they make up the "Irpin Declaration" which is a union between Freedom of Russia Legion, National Republican Army and Russian Volunteer Corps. It consists of defectors from the Russian Armed Forces, Russian volunteers and former Russian politicians. Their number is reportedly around 1,000.

Their leader is Ilya Ponomarev, a former Russian politician, a member of the State Duma who voted against Russia's annexation of Crimea.

Their allegiance is to Ukraine for now but also the Irpin Declaration, created with the aim of representing their interests before the state authorities of different countries and organizing a common information policy. They want to overthrow Putin. Ukraine claims Russian Volunteer Corps is independent. The National Republican Army is an "ally" of Ukraine and Freedom of Russia Legion is one of the International Legions of Ukraine.

The ones involved in this are claimed to be Russian Volunteer Corps and Freedom of Russia Legion.

4. Idk...Could be a number of things, it could actually be them doing a move themselves without Ukraine. If Ukraine is involved it could simply be a distraction technique to draw Russian Forces away from the frontlines. They (the group) currently claim their goal is to create a DMZ in Belgorod (not a bad idea but likely one which they won't be able to achieve) so I'm leaning towards creating chaos on behalf of Ukraine.

If Russia isn't an absolute shitshow then this shouldn't last longer than a day, they will likely be pushed back across the border but the damage will be done, domestically for Russia and militarily, Russia will likely pull back a bunch of troops to secure their borders which helps Ukraine to perform a counterattack on the frontlines.

I think I read it's less than ~100 who have gone across the border, a few vehicles and a few tanks.

Something interesting to consider in relation to this is that Russia’s border fortifications in Belgorod are likely to be similar to what they have deployed in southern Ukraine to defend against the anticipated Ukrainian offensive. If these defences hold up so poorly against a small group of partizans, they are likely to fair significantly worse against a large and organised army.

I had a little chuckle to myself imagining them simply being lifted up and moved, I know it's definitely not how it happened because these things likely weigh a tonne but it's Russia so you never know