The recent cross-border raid on several Russian villages which left two civilians dead and a young boy injured was approved in advance by the Ukrainian authorities, a neo-Nazi fighter involved in the attack has told the Financial Times. Officials in Kiev previously tried to distance themselves from the incursion.
Fighters from the Ukraine-based Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK) overran villages across the border in Russia’s Bryansk Region on Thursday, opening fire on civilian vehicles and leaving landmines and booby traps. In a social media video, the Kiev-aligned group officially claimed responsibility for the attack. The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said they were forced back to Ukrainian territory and hit with a “massive artillery strike.”
Speaking to the FT in a report published on Friday, Denis Nikitin – who appeared in the RDK video – said the Ukrainian authorities had “signed off” on the raid. “Yes, of course, this action was agreed, otherwise it couldn’t have happened,” he claimed. “How do you imagine that I passed through the dark of night there?”