Biden administration officials have said that the US is looking into reports of US military equipment being used in a cross-border raid that was launched from Ukraine into Russia’s Belgorod region.
Both Russia and the militias that launched the attack said US armored vehicles were used in the raid. But the Biden administration is claiming the reports aren’t confirmed.
“We are looking into those reports, but as I’ve said, we have not yet reached any conclusions about them,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said at a press briefing on Wednesday. Miller refused to say what potential consequences there would be for Ukraine if US equipment were used in the attack or if there would be any at all.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby also said the US was looking into the reports. “We’ve been pretty darn clear: We don’t support the use of US-made equipment for attacks inside Russia … we’ve been clear about that with the Ukrainians,” he said.
The Kremlin said Wednesday that the use of US military equipment in a cross-border raid in Russia’s Belgorod region demonstrates the West’s growing involvement in the war between Russia and Ukraine.
Miller also claimed that the US has not come to a conclusion as to who carried out the attacks. Two groups of Russians who had volunteered to fight for Kyiv took credit for the raid, the Freedom of Russia Legion and the Russian Volunteer Corps.
The Russian Volunteer Corps has members who are open neo-Nazis and white nationalists, including its leader, Denis Nikitin. He told Financial Times that his fighters were armed with US armored vehicles, including at least two MRAPs, and several Humvees. Videos and pictures posted by Russia’s military matched Nikitin’s claims.
Russia has described the attackers as a “Ukrainian sabotage group” and said the Russian military killed 70 people. However, Ilya Ponomarev, a political representative for the Freedom of Russia Legion, denied that any of the group’s fighters were killed in comments to France 24.
Ponomarev said that the Freedom of Russia Legion is part of the Ukrainian military and received a “green light” from Kyiv to launch the raid. He insisted that “not a single Ukrainian soldier has entered Russian soil” and said the operation was “a totally autonomous operation by Russians inside Russia.”
Ukrainian officials have tried to distance themselves from the operation, saying that the Russian volunteers were only part of Ukraine’s military when they were fighting in Ukraine. But The Times of London reported that Discord leaks show Ukraine had been planning attacks on Russian territory using Russian volunteer groups for some time. One document said the Russian citizens fighting for Ukraine are armed with “various qualitative types of NATO weapons.”
The convenient never conclusive investigations that we are always marooned with.
Biden’s apparatchiks lie so easily. Pathological and deeply disturbing.
And what will be the outcome if this turns out to be true? Tanks, Jets and armaments are being poured in the country. Was there a specific instructions they provided to Zelenskyy not to use these weapons outside Ukraine?
I can only think that once summer rolls over, there will be a massive payback
Something about this article is reminiscent of that wtf moment when during the 2nd ww US marines discovered GM engines fitted to the Nazi trucks they had blown up.
In the end it all appears to be related to the same group that’s profiting from providing material support.
Shame that profiteering from war isn’t illegal in the US……………….Like it ought to be.
It’s a zero-sum game. They are getting more smart, we are getting less smart. Not a day goes by without US probing, investigating, but still denying obvious lies, miscalculations, atrocities, fraud, etc. Still, there is no palpable national outrage or push back at all. Just the same old duopoly circus that gets us nothing and to nowhere. I myself, have decided to become less smart. I can’t control my desire to see how this is going to end. (Sarcasm alert)
It’s a less than zero-sum game. Most of the world’s political “leadership” seems to be getting less and less smart. After Putin’s “tell George W. Bush to hold my beer” moment, the only seeming contender for maybe, just possibly, although not certainly, being the exception would be China.
?? I don’t see how you can say this. Putin has shown himself a very cool customer under fire, turning to account the Washington/Brussels/Kiev cowboy clown show into the coin of world public opinion against the Washington Ministry of Truth.
“”Putin has shown himself a very cool customer under fire,””
but we don’t actually know that – for all we know Putin could have devolved into some foaming at the mouth B-movie villain over there. i doubt it, but we would never know.
Oh I think we do, … pretty safe bet anyway. Lavrov and Putin, after years of experience, have a style of calm mastery. The opposite thing to the sleazy political whores produced by we’re used to.
If Putin is still exhibiting a “style of cool mastery” it’s because he hasn’t been told of the failure of his “special military operation”.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/putin-claimed-a-400-year-old-map-proved-ukraine-isnt-a-real-country-not-noticing-it-has-ukraine-written-on-it/ar-AA1bD7PS
Whoops…
The bourgeois nation-state largely wasn’t invented until the 19th c..
Just like any country we target for regime change, all those leaders turn into villains from a Mickey Mouse cartoon meets James Bond movie. Regardless of how stupid or ridiculous, my neighbors are in the front row, devouring the popcorn. (Along with the Deep$hitState operatives on this page) (Sarcasm)
He made an ill-advised decision to escalate the frozen conflict in the Donbas to open war.
Then when that escalation turned into a fiasco and the US/UK/EU/NATO regimes managed to pressure Zelenskyy into not letting him off the hook with minimal gains, he doubled down instead of immediately finding a way to GTFO no matter what.
And he’s spent the year since continuing to make George W. Bush circa 2003-2009 look like a very stable genius.
Ill advised it was not. I get it war is not good but when you have the barbarian hordes at the gates and history has some lessons to teach, you learn fast. US Ukrainian proxy ploy is not the first dance Russian has had to tangle with. George W. cannot be a point of reference the circumstances are extremely different. US was going to challenge Russia no matter what. It’s its turn as the empire du jour to try and defeat the Northstar. For all the conquering and rampant wars its been engaged in for the last 100+ years, only a naive person will make an argument over to choose or not to choose war when the Warlord nation comes knocking. Recent examples still burning in mind, Fallujah, Palmyre, Aleppo, Benghazi, Kabul, etc etc.
LOL. Good one, Thomas. Here’s another plot twist. If China thinks for a moment they’re more smart by building a huge arsenal of nuclear weapons (which I truly believe they are doing right now), they’re actually still pulling all of us down on the overall index of “smart.” Reminds me of when Bush set the new 21st century standard for military and political strategy with “We’re going to smoke them out.”
isn’t all of that called “grading on the curve”?
Like George Foreman used to say, “if you don’t knock them out, the fight becomes a beauty contest.”
the US is looking into reports of US military equipment being used in a cross-border raid that was launched from Ukraine into Russia
what’s to investigate? the US is providing billions of dollars of military equipment to Ukraine for the very purpose of fighting against Russia. what is uncle sam supposed to put stipulations on any weapons deliveries?
“hey, Careful With That Axe Eugene!”
….. uncle sam
Investigating?
We have such lousy controls on the arms we ship we don’t even know if those Western made vehicals are ours or not?
They lie so easily….
Yeah, right. Come one now, we KNOW U.S. equipment was used. Why did we give it to the NAZIs, for show and tell?
“Both Russia and the militias that launched the attack said US armored vehicles were used in the raid. But the Biden administration is claiming the reports aren’t confirmed.”
The US can claim anyone they kill in a drone strike to be a high level AL Qaeda/ISIS operative within minutes of the drone hitting its target but can’t confirm something that happened three days ago even though both sides have said it was US equipment.
Thus we may now turn to Bismark’s maxim, ‘never believe anything until it’s been officially denied’, and rest assured that it’s true indeed.
I wonder if Bye-Done knows how to play chess?….;-)