Vladimir Putin called an attack in a village near the border with Ukraine “a terrorist act,” hours after scrapping plans to travel to southern Russia Thursday over the episode.
(Bloomberg) — Vladimir Putin called an attack in a village near the border with Ukraine “a terrorist act,” hours after scrapping plans to travel to southern Russia Thursday over the episode.
“They crossed into the border zone and opened fire on civilians” who were in a vehicle, Putin said in comments at the start of a televised video conference with teachers.
Ukraine dismissed the allegations its forces crossed the border into the Bryansk Region as a set-up aimed at building public support for Russia’s invasion.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the president was receiving regular reports on the events from top security officials. The Federal Security Service said earlier its forces, together with the military, were repelling what it said was an attack by “armed Ukrainian nationalists” in a border area of the Bryansk Region.
Peskov said Putin plans to hold a regular meeting of his Security Council on Friday, denying reports in some Russian media that a special session had been scheduled Thursday to discuss the events.
Russian state news agencies offered conflicting accounts of the events in the border area near Ukraine Thursday, with some reporting casualties among civilians blamed on unidentified attackers, who numbered in the dozens.
Ukraine’s Northern Military Command warned Feb. 23 that intelligence reports showed sightings of troops without insignia and wearing uniforms similar to Ukrainian ones in Russia’s Bryansk region close to the border.
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