A senior member of the Free Russian Army, an armed group of Russians that opposes the Putin regime in Russia and carries out daily attacks in the western provinces bordering Ukraine, gave an interview to NHK. The senior official said that while working closely with the Ukrainian military, "we are carrying out attacks on Russian territory on our own" and stressed that the goal is to eventually attack the capital Moscow.
The person who responded to the NHK online interview on the 6th was Ilya Ponomalyov, a senior official of the political department of the Free Russian Army.
In it, Mr. Ponomaryov said, "We are formally incorporated as a foreign unit of the Ukrainian army and have fought against Russian forces on the Ukrainian front lines."
"The Ukrainian army has promised Western countries that it will not attack Russian territory, so it is conducting attacks on Russian territory on its own," he said, insisting that the attack was based on its own judgment while closely coordinating with the Ukrainian army.
Mr. Ponomaryov also explained that the unit was made up mainly of soldiers who opposed the Putin regime and defected from the Russian army, with four battalions in the Free Russian Army and one battalion in the Russian Volunteer Army, which is fighting together. There may be spies and we have to keep a strict check, which is an obstacle to increasing the number of members."
"We still have few troops, but our goal is Moscow, and we aim to remind the elites that Putin will lose the war and the regime will collapse, and eventually enter the capital," he said, emphasizing that the goal is to attack Moscow to overthrow Putin's government.