Russian armed resistance group tells CBS News the Ukraine war is helping it attack Putin on his own soil

Kharkiv, Ukraine – Across major cities UkraineIn the early hours of Friday morning, Russian cruise missiles and drones targeted the capital city of Kiev once again. Russia has stepped up its airstrikes in recent weeks, seeking to disrupt Ukraine’s preparations for a long-anticipated counterattack.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky fired a missile at a clinic in the eastern city of Dnipro on Friday morning, killing at least one person and injuring 15. said on TwitterCalling it “another crime against humanity”.

But attacks have also increased. inside Dissident groups of Russian citizens opposed to Russian President Vladimir Putin and his war in Ukraine have carried out attacks in border cities including Bryansk and Belgorod.

by the Bomb explosion in Moscow That killed a vocal advocate of the recent cross-border invasion of Ukraine. Raids in the Belgorod region of Russia Inside Russia, there is growing evidence of armed resistance to Putin’s war.

A combination of anti-Kremlin armed groups are behind the attacks. They have different political views and ideals, but they are united by a common goal:

“To ensure the collapse of the Russian regime as quickly as possible,” in the words of a masked gunman from one of the groups, who spoke with CBS News for a rare on-the-record interview.

We sent written questions to one of the extremist groups that has claimed responsibility for some of the recent attacks on Russian soil.

The warriors, heavily disguised, said Train derailed in Bryansk. Earlier this month in their most successful operation to date. He provided us with a video allegedly showing him setting off an explosion and throwing a Molotov cocktail at a Russian electrical substation.

“We are destroying military targets and supporting infrastructure,” a masked spokesman for the armed group told CBS News.

CBS News could not independently verify the group’s claims, and this week’s brazen attacks on Russian towns in the Belgorod region, bordering Ukraine, by two other extremist organizations calling themselves the Russian Volunteer Corps and the Free Russia Legion. had started

Fresh from the raids, they held a brazen news conference near the Russian border in eastern Ukraine, with Voluntary Corps commander Denis Kapustin, known for his far-right leanings, threatening more attacks. .

He said that we consider the first phase to be a successful phase. “It’s over now but the operation continues. That’s all I can say for now.”

No U.S. military equipment was used in the attack, Kapustin said, and the masked men we spoke to said it was necessary thanks to a huge black market created as a result of Putin’s war. Can get corresponding weapons.

The group has threatened more attacks.

Russia’s official news agency RIA Novosti Friday, according to authoritiesMeanwhile, a Russian national has reportedly been arrested and charged with planning the attack in the Black Sea resort town of Gelendzhik, not far from Ukraine’s Russian-held Crimean peninsula. do not have.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the alleged plot, but RIA said authorities identified the suspect as “a supporter of Ukrainian neo-Nazism, a Russian citizen” who is “law enforcement in the region”. was planning an attack against “organizations that

CBS News’ Tucker Reales contributed to this report.