Putin’s volunteer unit is said to have shot at Russians in Kursk

Putin is deploying a special unit of volunteers in Kursk. According to reports, the “BARS-Kursk” has now fired on Russian soldiers in the border region.

Kursk – In the Russian border region of Kursk, the Russian volunteer special unit “BARS-Kursk” is said to have fired on Russian troops on Sunday night. This was reported by the Russian military blogger, Ramon Saponkow, on Telegram. Only a few days ago, the special unit was supposed to be deployed to counter the Ukrainian offensive. The authorities in the region had reported on Thursday (29 August) that Kyiv Post Announced the establishment of a volunteer unit to “maintain law and order” in the Russian border region.

The volunteer units are to be deployed in the regions bordering the areas occupied by Ukraine. The governor of the region, Alexei Smirnov, announced on Telegram: “The main task of the unit is to ensure security in eight evacuated districts, as well as in other regions of the Kursk region.” According to Saponkov, the unit opened fire on Saturday evening twelve kilometers from the front.

“Friendly fire” during Kurk’s offensive: Report on Russian shelling of its own soldiers

According to the Russian blogger, there had previously been reports on Telegram of Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance groups that had allegedly penetrated the Kursk-Lgov highway. The volunteer unit, wrote Saponkov, “shot at everything that moved.” Soldiers were reportedly injured in the process – according to the Telegram report, no one was killed. It is not clear whether urban sabotage and reconnaissance groups were actually on the highway. Saponkov wrote about the incident in the Russian border region: “The territorial defense’s firing on its own armed forces is not the first case.”

Alleged “friendly fire” – shelling of the troops – in the Kursk region was also reported by Forbes Mid-August. At that time, a video showed a Russian Ka-52 attack helicopter firing on a column of military vehicles near the Kursk border town of South Sha. Only after several vehicles had been destroyed did the pilot realize that he had fired on his own troops, the report says. The video and report by the Russian blogger have not yet been independently verified or confirmed by the Russian Defense Ministry.

Ukraine’s Kursk advance: Putin relies on volunteer troops in the Russian border region

Ukraine’s advance in the Russian border region has now lasted for almost a month. Since then, Ukrainian troops – tens of thousands of soldiers – are said to have occupied more than 1,000 square kilometers in Russia. One of the goals of the Ukrainian offensive is to relieve the pressure on heavily contested fronts in the Ukraine war. A goal that does not seem to have been achieved so far. The east of Ukraine remains contested and Russian President Vladimir Putin is apparently relying on volunteers in the Russian border region rather than withdrawing many well-trained soldiers from other fronts.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) sees the deployment of BARS units as a sign of Putin’s reluctance to send better-trained soldiers to Kursk. A report by Defense Express Instead, the volunteer units were mostly light infantry formations that lacked integrated artillery or armored vehicles. War blogger Saponkov criticizes the use of volunteer troops in Kursk. “Civilians with weapons in combat zones are useless,” writes Saponkov.