Russian freedom fighters vow to invade their own country to smash Putin’s sham elections – before marching on Moscow

RUSSIAN rebels battling Putin's forces in the borderlands say their plan is to disrupt the tyrant's sham elections - and vowed to one day "march on Moscow".

The political head of Russian armed resistance, Ilya Ponomarev, told The Sun his Ukraine-supporting partisans are ready to take the fight to Vlad as part of "Operation Freedom".

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At sunrise on Tuesday, the rebels stormed across the border from Ukraine into Russia in an unprecedented two-pronged assault on their homeland.

Ponomarev said: "This is absolutely the largest assault we have led and it is finally a joint operation of all three Russian [partisan] regiments."

The brave anti-Kremlin groups have spent the past few hours urging all civilians to immediately evacuate their homes ahead of "massive strikes".

Fighters from the Freedom of Russia Legion (FRL), Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK) and Siberian Battalion (SB) are understood to still be fighting government troops in the border regions of Belgorod and Kursk.

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These Ukraine-based squads - mostly made up of Russians - gave the chilling orders to locals through a group Telegram statement posted by the FRL.

It read: "Civilians should not suffer from the war" before describing the regions sitting perilously on the border as a "combat zone".

Earlier today, Russian forces were reportedly forced to face attacks in the two regions.

The TASS news agency said Russia's National Guard and armed forces were fighting against armed men near Tyotkino in the Kursk region.

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Russia's defence ministry also said their fighters had been caught up in an attempt by the Ukrainian army to break through in Belgorod.

Russia claimed they killed 195 Ukrainian troops and destroyed five tanks in the region, reports Sky News.

Ponomarev, an ex-Russian MP and devout Kremlin enemy, couldn't reveal the exact numbers of partisans and tanks engaged in the raid - yet estimated his forces are outnumbered 10 to 1.

But his battle-hardened guerrilla groups - who have been cutting their teeth fighting for Ukraine in some of its bloodiest battles - are putting up a decent fight, he said.

This is a large-scale operation — we are attacking several directions simultaneously

Ilya Ponomarev

And he wants to make their goals clear.

He said: "The military objective here is to test Russia's new defences but the primary objective here is political.

"To do it before the so-called 'elections' will inspire and mobilise Russians to our side to join our ranks.

"We will not support these sham elections as they try to legitimise Putin's power."

The Kremlin kingpin is all but certain to win the rigged elections that are taking place this weekend, which would secure his brutal reign over Russia until at least 2030.

For this reason the rebels are seizing this moment to "show the strength of our resistance," Ponomarev explained. "We are trying to mount pressure in all directions."

The opposition leader added: "Putin has been embarrassed so much already - this is more than that. This is about inspiring resistance. We need to actually fight."

In a provocative video message released as their assault kicked off, the FRL declared they were "heading for the polls".

"We're marching to free you [Russian citizens] from misery, poverty, and the dictatorship of a terrorist organisation... Wait for us."

As of last night, Ponomarev said: "The battle is ongoing, our guys are still there, there were several small settlements that were liberated, the biggest one is Tetkino in Kursks region."

But it is far from the partisans' first attack on Russia.

"We have been leading raids on a weekly basis since September, but they were small-scale, nothing to boast about - guerrilla type, mosquito operations.

"Now, this is a large-scale operation — we are attacking several directions simultaneously and our fighters are experienced, trained."

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The groups Ponomarev represents first exploded onto the world stage last May when they charged across the border in tanks and led one of the biggest assaults on Russian soil since Putin rose to power.

In a dramatic days-long battle, the FRL alongside the RDK “liberated” eight villages in the Belgorod region, even taking Russian soldiers captive and humiliating Vlad on his home turf.

This time around, they've returned with more men, more tanks, and a new furious battalion by their side from Siberia.

A senior commander in the FRL had previously warned The Sun that they were scaling-up their operations and preparing for a big assault in 2024.

This morning, the Legion shared footage of its simultaneous attack on two Russian ammunition depots in Tetkino, destroying both facilities at once and leaving them ablaze.

They wrote on X/Twitter: "While Putin's army is destroying civilian homes, Legion artillerymen destroyed 2 ammunition depots of Putin's combat in Tetkino at once. It burns beautifully."

Before also claiming to have destroyed a Russian control centre.

Earlier footage the FRL released - later verified by the BBC - showed them blowing up an armoured personnel carrier in Kursk, while Putin's forces were filmed appearing to flee a village.

Russia's defence ministry has insisted that the rebel breakthrough was thwarted and claimed more than 234 "Ukrainian" troops had been killed and several tanks destroyed.

Ukraine's armed forces denied their involvement in the attack and said the paramilitary groups are "independent organisations" of Russian citizens who are operating at "home".

Ponomarev slammed Moscow's claims as "bull s***".

"There are some wounded but no fatalities so far," he said, adding that Moscow's attempts to claim the insurgents had never even made it pass the border was laughable.

"The footage proves the opposite," he said wryly.

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But Ponomarev and his so-called "freedom fighters" are not ignorant of reality. "We are not in position to be able to keep control over the [captured] areas for a long time."

He explained that the partisans' usual arsenal of weapons in Ukraine is largely made up of western equipment which is not allowed to be used on Russian soil.

"This is why we are defenceless, at the end of the day we will have to withdraw."

But it was never about holding onto captured territory, Ponomarev claimed. Instead, it was about sending a message to Russian society and also to the world that Putin's regime can and will be penetrated.

The West, he said, is suffering from "war fatigue" towards Ukraine. "They haven't had positive news for a very long time and have started to lose hope.

"By going into Russia and doing something high-profile and successful without fatalities shows it's all possible.

"It’s not Ukraine's job, it's Russia’s job to defeat Putin and we are ready to work for that.

"The overall goal is to march on Moscow - we are not sure of the particular scenario that will produce that - but one thing is certain, we need to have armed people in Moscow at the critical moment."

Ponomarev also stated that he, along with dozens of other Russian opposition leaders, will be gathering this weekend in Kyiv to protest Russia's presidential elections.

"We want to show solidarity with Ukraine and that a growing number of people inside the Russian opposition support armed resistance and are joining us."

It comes as Russia have spent the last few days undertaking massive searches for artists and activists in the country, report the BBC.

Security forces hunted down at least 14 people across Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg, Ulyanovsk and Samara on Tuesday. 

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After questioning the artists they were safely released.

The questions concerned Pussy Riot activist Pyotr Verzilov - a top Putin enemy who was mysteriously poisoned in 2018 and is now allegedly facing “high treason” charges by Russia.

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