Russian volunteer battalions capture settlements in the Belgorod region. What is happening?

On the morning of May 22, Russian volunteers from the Freedom of Russia Legion and the Russian Volunteer Corps, who had fought on the side of Ukraine, announced their return to the territory of the Russian Federation to fight for freedom from the government. 

As of 15:25, the Russians announced the start of an attack on Grayvoron in the Belgorod region.

The governor of the Belgorod region of the Russian Federation, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said that a subversive group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine had allegedly entered the territory of the Grayvoron district. 

Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said that the Russian President had been informed of an "attempted breakthrough by Ukrainian saboteurs." Peskov said that the purpose of the "sabotage" was to allegedly distract them from the Bakhmut direction.

In a comment to Suspilne, the spokesperson for the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, Andrii Yusov, said that the Freedom of Russia Legion and the RVC were conducting an operation in the Belgorod region to create a "security strip" to protect Ukrainian civilians. Yusov said that only Russian citizens are conducting the operation.