America tries to distance itself from it Dramatic raid on Russian territory go through Pro-Ukrainian forces They appear to have used US equipment in the attack.

Moscow It said on Tuesday it had repelled an attack on its Belgorod region after two days of fighting with attackers who launched a cross-border attack.

A lot is unclear about this battle. Russia said the attack was carried out by saboteurs of the Ukrainian military; Ukraine said it was carried out by independent Russian citizens.

Washington has provided Kiev with billions of dollars in military aid but tried to spend it on defending Ukrainian territory rather than attacking Russian territory, which could be justification for the Kremlin to escalate the conflict.

Video released by the Russian Ministry of Defense and verified by NBC News shows U.S.-made Humvees and “MRAP” armored vehicles parked at Russian border checkpoints following an alleged invasion by pro-Ukrainian and anti-Putin fighters.

The Russian Volunteers, which describe themselves as Russians fighting on behalf of Ukraine and claiming to be behind a previous cross-border raid, also released a video Wednesday morning showing them in possession of an MRAP US military vehicle, although it is not clear where it is taking pictures.

Denis Nikitin, far-right nationalist leader of the Russian Volunteer Army, told the financial times His team owns the American-made vehicles, but declined to say how they obtained them.

Some analysts questioned the appearance of the vehicles in the video shared by the Russian Ministry of Defense, drawing attention to the lack of apparent damage and their location.

“It’s possible that the vehicles were used in some form of attack, but it’s also possible that the imagery was staged – a long-standing Kremlin practice of disinformation. That is, the U.S. and NATO threaten Russia’s security,” said Clint Watts, a national security analyst for NBC News and MSNBC.

When asked about the images, U.S. officials said they were following the reports.

“It’s something we’re watching very closely,” the Air Commodore said. Defense Department spokesman Gen. Pat Ride said when asked about reports of the use of U.S. vehicles. “In terms of the authenticity of the image, I don’t know if it’s real.”

He added that the United States did not authorize Ukraine to hand over the equipment to anyone else, nor did Ukraine ask for it.

“We currently cast doubt on the veracity of these reports,” said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.

Both spokesmen stressed that the United States would not “encourage or facilitate attacks on Russian soil,” as Mueller said. “But as we’ve also said,” he added, “it’s up to Ukraine to decide how to conduct this war.”

The warning is part of a wider debate in the West about how much military support to give Ukraine without sparking a direct war with President Vladimir Putin.

“It is no secret to us that more and more equipment is being supplied to Ukraine,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said at Wednesday’s daily news briefing. “It’s no secret that this type of equipment is being used against our military,” he said.

He turned his attention to the United States and its allies, adding: “It is no secret that the direct and indirect involvement of these Western countries in this conflict is increasing every day. We have drawn appropriate conclusions,” he added said, but without elaboration.

Half of Americans support the Pentagon’s continued supply of weapons to Ukraine, according to a survey this week by the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy and the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

If the images of the American vehicles are authentic, it is unclear how they were used in the fighting on Russian soil.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said 70 attackers were killed, which he said were saboteurs of the Ukrainian military, but did not mention Russian casualties.

Kyiv denies this. Andriy Yusov, a spokesman for Ukraine’s military intelligence service, said in a voice message to NBC News that the attackers were members of the far-right nationalist Russian Volunteer Army and the Russian Freedom Army. “Legions of Russian citizens.

He said the militias “acted completely autonomously” while the Ukrainian army “liberated occupied Ukrainian territory only within internationally recognized Ukrainian borders”.

The Freedom Corps of Russia describes itself as a group of Russians fighting the Kremlin on behalf of Ukraine. Some members of the group expressed neo-Nazi ideology.

The group said on its Telegram channel that the goal of the operation was to “liberate” the border region, about 45 miles north of the eastern Ukraine city of Kharkiv, away from the front lines of the war.