In response to an alleged Ukrainian sabotage gang that has “taken hostages” in Russia, Vladimir Putin is anticipated to convene a meeting of his national security council today.
Unverified reports out of Moscow claim that up to 50 Ukrainians crossed the border in the Bryansk area.
‘An armed group of Ukrainian nationalists’ had penetrated, according to the Federal Security Service, which said in a statement to Russian news media that both its own forces and the army were attempting to exterminate them.
Some disinformation experts have already branded this as propaganda on Twitter, and a ‘possible false flag operation and disinformation campaign’ coming from the Kremlin.
Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to Volodymyr Zelensky, also stressed this was ‘classic deliberate provocation’ from the invader.
In a statement on Twitter, he said: ‘Russia 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 Russia is getting stronger and more aggressive. Fear your partisans.’
Details remain unclear, but Bryansk governor Alexander Bogomaz said they had shot and killed one person.
‘Today, a Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance group penetrated the Klimovsky district in the village of Lubechanye,’ Bogomaz said on his Telegram channel.
‘Saboteurs fired on a moving car. As a result of the attack, one resident was killed and a 10-year-old child was wounded.’
He said Ukrainian armed forces had launched a drone attack and fired artillery shells at other areas near the border.
The state-owned RIA Novosti news agency reported on its Telegram channel that Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Putin cancelled a planned trip to Stavropol ‘due to the situation in the Bryansk region’.
The president told the FSB this week that it needed to step up its guard against espionage and what he called terrorist threats emanating from Ukraine and the West.
‘Your task is to put a barrier in the way of sabotage groups, to stop attempts to illegally transport weapons and ammunition into Russia,’ he said in a speech on Tuesday.