Senior Operational Group Member in Belgorod Killed by Paramilitary Organization in Novaya Tavolzhanka

In the village of Novaya Tavolzhanka, Shebekinsky District, Belgorod Region, Andrey Stesev, a senior operational group of Belgorod, was killed. About it informs Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense.

According to operational information, on the night of June 5, in the village of Novaya Tavolzhanka, Colonel of the Guard Andrey Stesev, the senior of the Belgorod task force, was killed.

Previously, he served as commander of the 104th Airborne Assault Regiment of the Russian Airborne Forces. This regiment, among others, was involved in the killings of civilians in Bucha. The regiment is part of the 76th Guards Air Assault Division (Pskov), which suffered one of the largest losses among the paratroopers of the Russian Federation.

ADDED. In the Legion “Freedom of Russia” declaredthat they, together with the Russian Volunteer Corps, liquidated Colonel Stesev.

“He died in a shooting battle, like an officer with a weapon in his hands, but it must be admitted that these hands are up to the elbows in blood <…> Stesev killed civilians in Chechnya, Yugoslavia, Abkhazia and on the territory of Ukraine.

On June 4, the RDK and the Freedom of Russia legion suggested that the governor of the Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, meet for negotiations in Novaya Tavolzhanka.

The commander of the RDK, Denis Kapustin, said that the unit captured two Russian soldiers and was ready to release them on the occasion of the Orthodox holiday of the Trinity. Gladkov never arrived, and Kapustin said in the evening of the same day that there were already “much more” Russian prisoners.

• Legion “Freedom of Russia” and the Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK) are paramilitary organizations consisting of citizens of the Russian Federation and declaring the goal of overthrowing the regime of the Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.
• They began to operate in the Belgorod region on May 22. Ukrainian intelligence says that they operate autonomously in the Russian Federation, but they know their goal is to create a buffer security zone around Ukraine.