KYIV, Ukraine — The first cross-border raids were quick and furtive, the commander said, just a handful of fighters entering a village, scouting the terrain, taking a few shots at Russian border guards and slipping away. Later, they returned briefly to speak with villagers. Finally, he said, a large group carried out the main mission – killing dozens of enemy troops, taking others prisoner and stealing weapons.

The commander, Denis Kapustin, is a leader of the Russian Volunteer Corps, one of two independent militias that staged a recent series of joint cross-border attacks inside Russia’s Belgorod region.

“These are full-scale attacks on the territory of the Russian Federation while it is under the occupation of the Kremlin regime,” Kapustin told a Russian YouTube channel, Khodorkovsky Live, this week while describing the militia’s operations. “The stakes are getting higher – and we are elevating them.”

Their aim is to give Russian civilians a taste of the death and destruction that President Vladimir Putin’s war has wrought on Ukraine, and to show that Putin is failing to keep the Russian motherland safe. The raids also created a military and political distraction as Ukraine prepared to launch its much anticipated counteroffensive, diverting attention from more important areas along the front and creating a political problem for Putin, who has sought to keep Russian lands and citizens out of the war.

Now, experts said, Russia must redeploy sizable military assets northward or risk leaving its own territory vulnerable to occupation and violence.

Kapustin, 39, who goes by “White Rex,” is a former Moscow fight promoter with a history of violent extremism. In 2019, he was banned from Western Europe for rightist sports hooligan activities. Russia considers him a terrorist.

Many members of the Russian Volunteer Corps have been fighting since 2014, when Russia invaded and illegally annexed Crimea. After Russia invaded Ukraine last year, the RVC formed an independent armed entity under Kapustin.

The other militia behind the raids is the Freedom of Russia Legion, a much larger fighting force with a more centrist reputation and a political wing led by Ilya Ponomarev, a former member of Russia’s parliament now living in exile. But it, too, has attracted former hard-right Russian activists, as well as a similar mix of former Russian soldiers who switched sides, often after being captured and imprisoned. Together, the groups claim to command up to 3,000 fighters.

The surprise cross-border attacks, which began in late May, forced thousands of people to evacuate, leaving communities temporarily abandoned along a 20-mile stretch of lightly guarded terrain. Aerial videos posted by the militias showed warehouses and trees on fire after being shelled or hit by drones, and Russian news videos showed wrecked military vehicles in fields.

“We have now captured the strategic initiative from the enemy,” said Pavlo Lakiychuk, head of security programs at the Center for Global Studies Strategy XXI, a policy institute in Kyiv.

Lakiychuk said that when Putin seized Crimea, he pretended there was no force involved. “Now those lies, that strategy have backfired. He has to decide whether to protect his own people in the north or occupy the south,” he said.

The cross-border attacks have also put Ukraine’s government in an awkward position. Its Western supporters, including the United States, fear that strikes on Russian soil are too provocative and have urged Ukraine not to use Western materiel for such operations.

Publicly, Kyiv has denied providing any support to the militias and insisted they are acting on their own. Both armed groups also deny receiving financial aid or direction. But there is widespread skepticism about these assertions, given that the groups are based in Ukraine.

After the cross-border raids, Russian officials said Ukrainian “saboteurs” had attacked civilian communities; militia leaders blamed Russian forces for firing indiscriminately at populated areas. Neither the militias nor Russian authorities have released images of combat or estimates of civilian or combatant casualties.

“The Russian people should not be afraid of us,” a legion commander with the call sign Caesar told The Washington Post in an interview. Caesar said Russian forces had attacked civilian areas with artillery and aircraft.

“We are not bandits or terrorists,” said Caesar, whom The Post is identifying only by his call sign for security reasons. “We are their liberators and we want to free Russia.” As for Putin, he said, “This time, we have to cut off the head of the tyrant.”

A gaunt man of 49, Caesar said he had been a sports coach and part of a “radical rightist opposition group” in Russia before joining the legion after the invasion last year. He said he had taken part in numerous battles on Ukraine’s side, including the grueling fight for Bakhmut. He also acknowledged being paid by Ukraine’s military. “When a Ukrainian colonel comes up and shakes your hand, it means something,” he said.

Ukrainian military intelligence officials did not respond to written questions about financial support for the militias.

The extremist links of militia members risk lending credence to Putin’s baseless claim that Ukraine is led a by a “Nazi regime.” They also raise questions about Kyiv’s willingness to tacitly partner with unsavory groups that have their own agenda. Militia leaders claim that by supporting the counteroffensive, they have bolstered their own ambitions to expand fundraising, weapons acquisition and recruiting inside Russia.

“We are in no way connected to the Ukrainian armed forces or political leadership,” Kapustin said. “Every attack on the territory of the Russian Federation is purely our decision.” He said publicity from the border raids is also “opening more opportunities” for the militias inside Russia. “Step by step,” he said, “we will get more weapons and become a more serious presence.”

Like the legion, the RVC has used social media to tout its role in the border operations and lionize its fallen members. One online post mourned the death of a fighter named Danylo Maznyk during a raid in Belgorod. Next to his photo, the text said he helped transform the group from a “small gang of desperate Russian boys” to a “full-fledged” fighting unit. It said he served six years in the Russian army and “saw from the inside all the injustice and rot.”

Despite the militias’ public image as a motley mix of Russian military pensioners, aging right-wing toughs and enthusiastic young adventurers, their bold incursions have won praise from some Ukrainian officials and quiet support in the country’s military intelligence circles.

A former senior Ukrainian intelligence official, Lt. Gen. Valerii Kondratiuk, said in an interview that the militias had proved themselves on the ground and also had an important impact on “elites surrounding Putin.” Despite the government’s disavowals, Kondratiuk said, many in Ukraine’s security establishment are eager to see the militias expand.

“To keep Ukraine free and safe, we need a military victory that will force Putin from power and bring him to justice,” Kondratiuk said. He described a “Siberian” battalion being formed by ex-soldiers from far-flung Russian regions. “We need all the sources of help we can get,” he said.

Kapustin, in the interview with Khodorkovsky Live, described most of his RVC members as “conservative, traditional and probably also socialist.” He said Freedom of Russia Legion members have more centrist views, and he acknowledged tensions between the groups. In joint field operations, he said, “we do the hardest work” as an assault unit, “but we have to share the victory equally.”

The legion’s more moderate reputation stems in part from its political director, Ponomarev, who was the only member of Russia’s parliament to vote against annexing Crimea in 2014.

In an interview, Ponomarev said he has tried to smooth relations with the RVC. “We have no time to debate politics,” he said. “We are both here to defeat Putinism.” The militias, he said, agree that power in Russia should “be decided by elections and go to the grass roots. For now, that is more than enough.”

Ponomarev also heads a group of former officials who are working to frame a future legal and political system for Russia, and have drawn up a proposed constitution and laws. Some Russian activists question the group’s legitimacy, but Ponomarev said Russia’s elite is “taking no action” and ordinary citizens are “scared and isolated. We want to win hearts and minds, but for now that is irrelevant,” he said. “It will only become important the day we enter Moscow.”

The Washington Post’s Anastacia Galouchka and Kostiantyn Khudov in Kyiv, Ukraine, and Serhii Korolchuk in Dnipro, Ukraine, contributed to this report.

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