Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday blamed “terrorists and neo-Nazis” for attacks on civilians after intelligence agencies and the Kremlin accused Ukrainian saboteurs of attacking the border zone between Ukraine and Russia.
The Russian army “protects Russia and our people from neo-Nazis and terrorists (…) They carried out a new terrorist attack today, penetrating our territory through the border (Ukraine) and opening fire on civilians,” Putin said in a statement. the performance was broadcast this Thursday on Russian television.
“It is these people who seek to deprive us of our historical memory, our history, our traditions and our language,” the head of state added.
A Kremlin spokesman has previously accused alleged saboteurs of “acts of terror” in the Bryansk border region.
The office of the President of Ukraine said that the information “about the penetration of saboteurs” is a “deliberate provocation” by Moscow.
“This story about a group of Ukrainian saboteurs in Russia is a classic deliberate provocation. Russia wants to frighten the Russian population itself in order to justify the invasion of Ukraine,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said in a message posted on the Twitter social networking site. .
The situation in the Bryansk border area has not yet been monitored by independent sources.
On Thursday morning, the Moscow special services (FSB) reported that the Russian army was trying to “eliminate” a group of saboteurs who had infiltrated the border area.
“The FSB and auxiliary forces of the Russian Ministry of Defense took measures to destroy armed Ukrainian nationalists who violated the (Russian) state border in the Klimovsky district of the Bryansk region,” the security services indicate about the alleged “penetration”.
“A reconnaissance and sabotage group entered the village of Lubechane from Ukraine,” said the governor of the Bryansk region Alexander Bogomaz.
According to the governor, “saboteurs fired at a moving vehicle”, mortally wounding one resident and injuring two others, including a ten-year-old child.
Russian news agencies RIA Novosti, TASS and Interfax, citing alleged witnesses and sources in the security and emergency services, report that the same Ukrainian group kidnapped several people.
This information has not yet been confirmed by independent sources.
Bogomaz added that there was another Ukrainian mortar attack on the town of Sushany in the same Russian region, which burned down a house and destroyed two houses in the village of Lomakovka.
The governor of Russia’s Kursk region said the area had been hit by Ukrainian bombing, especially the city of Tetkino, where one person died.
According to France Presse, the border areas have been bombed since February last year, but the Moscow authorities rarely mention the actions of Ukrainian sabotage groups.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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