Russian President Vladimir Putin alleges that on Thursday, a Ukrainian sabotage gang crossed into a Russian border area and began firing on residents.
Border town Lyubechane saw "saboteurs from Ukraine" open fire on a civilian automobile, injuring a 10-year-old kid and killing two adults, according to the governor of the Bryansk region, per BBC.
Russian President Vladimir Putin referred to it as a "terrorist act" of a group that targeted civilians in a televised message amid the Russia-Ukraine war.
"They won't achieve anything. We will crush them," Vladimir Putin remarked, according to NBC News.
According to a statement sent by Russia's FSB internal security service to the official news outlet Tass, Russian special forces and the Russian army are now engaged in a battle to eliminate "an armed group of Ukrainian nationalists" who have crossed into Russia from Ukraine.
Mykhaylo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, called it "a classic deliberate provocation" on Twitter to justify an assault on another nation.
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Ukraine and the United States have expressed concern that Russia is planning so-called "false flag" assaults along Russia's border with Ukraine as a pretext for military escalation. This includes Russian accusations before last year's full-scale invasion that Ukraine was sending "saboteurs" across the Russian border, according to a CNN report.
Russia Tightens Border Security
The Bryansk area is bordered on the south by Ukraine and on the west by Belarus, a close Russian ally country that aided Moscow forces in the Russian-Ukraine war.
Social media posts and videos purportedly from the Russian Volunteer Corps went viral after the claimed incident occurred.
Although calling itself "a volunteer formation in the Armed Forces of Ukraine" opposing Putin, the group denied involvement by a Ukrainian sabotage unit.
Vladimir Putin ordered officials to strengthen border controls with Ukraine after the Kremlin claimed Kyiv-launched drones had flown far into Russian territory, including one near Moscow.
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