Ukraine's Daring Raid Behind Enemy Lines Captured in Video

Ukraine has conducted a cross border raid on Russia's western Belgorod region, inflicting losses on Moscow's forces, Kyiv's military intelligence said on Friday, releasing a video of the operation. "Raid on the occupants' lair—the scouts inflicted another loss on the enemy," the Main Directorate of Intelligence (HUR) said on its Telegram channel.

The Belgorod region bordering Ukraine has been —the and the Russian Volunteer Corps (RVC)—throughout Russia's full scale invasion of Ukraine. The HUR said it had obtained intelligence that leadership planned to inspect military positions in Belgorod's Gayvoron district due to complaints from Russian personnel about poor conditions.

"In order to inflict losses on the enemy and worsen his morale and psychological state, special officers of the HUR of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine planned and carried out a special operation," the post said. The nearly 150 second long video shows a group of Ukrainian soldiers making their way through a forest, planting mines and firing from a distance, causing multiple explosions.

The HUR said its troops mined the area and attacked a Russian platoon. It's not clear how many casualties were sustained by Moscow in the operation. has contacted Russia's Defense Ministry for comment via email. The raid comes after Russia accused Ukraine of being behind a number of recent strikes on Belgorod.

Russian President vowed on Monday to retaliate. Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the strikes on Belgorod, and rarely comments on strikes that occur Putin said the attacks—the deadliest in the region since the war began in February 2022—would "not go unpunished." A Russian military analyst said Wednesday that a video showed that a tore through a roof and into a child's room in Belgorod.

"The upper block of the Pantsir S1 rocket flew into a child's room in Belgorod," Ian Matveev, a Russian military analyst affiliated with the Anti Corruption Foundation, set up by opposition activist , (formerly ). The same clip was posted on X by pro Ukrainian user (((Tendar))), who said that it had been distributed by Russian Telegram channels as they believed it showed destruction caused by Ukrainian missiles in the city.

"Russian channels like 'Zhest Belgorod' distributed videos and pictures of missile fragments, which damaged civilian properties in Belgorod," wrote (((Tendar))). "However, once they realized that those were the booster sections of 23Ya6 missiles of the Russian Pantsir S1 air defense system, they deleted them." Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground..