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President Vladimir Putin’s newly formed special volunteer unit created to “maintain law and order” in the Kursk region amid an ongoing Ukrainian incursion is reported to have opened fire on Russian troops in the area.
The incident took place on Sunday night, Russian war journalist Roman Saponkov said on his Telegram channel. Alexei Smirnov, acting head of Kursk, had announced the creation of the armed volunteer unit called “BARS-Kursk” on August 29, saying they would “ensure security” in the region.
Kyiv launched its lightning offensive in Kursk on August 6 and is so far reported to have seized control of about 1,294 square kilometers (500 square miles) of Russian territory and 100 settlements. Newsweek has yet to verify these figures.
Putin has ordered his forces to push back Ukrainian troops from Kursk by October 1, according to RBC Ukraine. More than 130,000 residents are reported to have been evacuated from the region.
“Kursk panic: War correspondent Roman Saponkov reports that after rumors circulated about Ukrainians breaking through to the Lgov-Kursk highway last night, local ‘self-defense’ forces—armed civilians—opened friendly fire, nearly killing Russian soldiers,” said X, formerly Twitter, user Dmitri, from War Translated, an independent project that translates materials about the war.
“He says it’s not the first time it happened,” the user added.
Saponkov said the volunteer unit “fired at everything that moved.”
“There were wounded, miraculously no fatalities (for now). This is 12 km [7.5 miles] from the front line. It is still unknown whether there were sabotage and reconnaissance groups on the highway. If you are scared, you should stay home,” the journalist wrote on Telegram.
Newsweek couldn’t independently verify Saponkov’s claims and has contacted Russia’s Defense Ministry for comment by email.
Smirnov said last week that the detachment “will become an important link in maintaining law and order in the Kursk region” after undergoing military training, and will work closely with the Russian army.
“The detachment’s tasks include not only ensuring security, but also participating in the life support of the resettled areas in order to support the remaining people during this difficult time,” Smirnov said.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a U.S.-based think tank, said last week that the formation of the defense unit highlights Putin’s “unwillingness to counter the incursion more seriously with a mobilization due to the risks of societal discontent or with large-scale redeployments due to possible disruptions to Russia’s ongoing offensive operations in eastern Ukraine.”
“The formation of these new BARS (Russian Army Combat Reserve) volunteer detachments is consistent with the Kremlin’s apparent strategy to avoid re-deploying experienced or combat effective units engaged in fighting in the Pokrovsk or Toretsk directions to Kursk Oblast due to concerns about slowing the tempo of Russian offensive operations in these higher priority directions,” the think tank added.
In its latest analysis on Sunday, the ISW said Ukrainian forces continued to conduct assaults in the Kursk region but made no confirmed advances.
Ukraine’s commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrsky has said one of the objectives of the offensive is to divert “significant” Russian manpower from front-line areas in Ukraine, including the eastern Donetsk city of Pokrovsk, which is a key logistical hub for Ukrainian forces in the area.
