Russia alleges pro-Ukrainian forces staged incursion into territory
Moscow/Kyiv, Mar 2 (EFE).- Russian authorities on Thursday claimed pro-Ukrainian forces had staged an incursion into the Russian Federation in what the Kremlin described as a terror attack.
Russian state news agency Tass said the alleged incursion comprising “several dozen armed militants” took place in the region of Bryansk, near the border with Ukraine.
Russia’s president Vladimir Putin canceled a visit to the Caucasus region in light of the incident, local media said.
During a televised speech, Putin said “Ukrainian saboteurs broke into the border territories and opened fire on civilians,” calling the alleged incident “a terrorist attack.”
“It is precisely people like these who aim to deprive us of our historical memory, our history, our traditions and our language,” he said.
Tass cited security officials as saying the militants killed one civilian and injured another, having accessed two villages in the region.
The claims were not independently verified, while Ukrainian authorities have denied the reports.
“The story about (Ukrainian) sabotage group in RF is a classic deliberate provocation. RF wants to scare its people to justify the attack on another country and the growing poverty after the year of war. The partisan movement in RF is getting stronger and more aggressive. Fear your partisans,” Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak said on Twitter.
The Russian Volunteer Corps, a right-wing anti-Putin militia that fights on the side of Ukraine, posted a video to Telegram in which it claimed responsibility for the incursion into Russian territory. EFE
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