“A sabotage and reconnaissance group” entered Russian territory “from Ukraine” on Thursday morning, Briansk region governor Alexander Bogomaz said. Vladimir Putin could convene a session of the Security Council in the next few hours.
The so-called “Russian Volunteer Corps” claims responsibility for the attack on villages in the Briansk region. This is a unit of Russian volunteers formed in August 2022 by people who have been fighting on the Ukrainian side since 2014. Kiev denies everything, says it is nothing more than a “deliberate provocation” by the Russians.
Dmitri Peskov has also reacted: “It is an attack carried out by terrorists and measures are being taken to destroy these terrorists. As for the international scene, we will continue to draw the world’s attention to the acts of terrorism they are carrying out.”
Among the residents of the Bryansk region there are dead and wounded in the clash with “Ukrainian saboteurs”, according to the Russian agency TASS. Their number is not specified.
According to Governor Bogomaz, “saboteurs” broke into the village of Lyubechane in the Klimovsky border district and fired at a car. In total, 40-50 “saboteurs” penetrated the Briansk region, according to Russian media Mash and Baza. TASS confirms that the group included several dozen armed people. Telegram channel ‘112’ describes how the “saboteurs” divided into two groups and went to the villages of Lyubechane and Sushany, located at a distance of 20 kilometers from each other.
Russia’s Briansk region, which borders Ukraine, has a population of just over a million, many with family ties to Ukraine: one in ten residents is Ukrainian. The region’s flag has a blue coat of arms representing Slavic unity between the states of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. The area has been attacked several times since Russia started the war.
The Kremlin said steps were being taken to destroy “Ukrainian terrorists”. Duma sources reported that Vladimir Putin was to chair an emergency meeting of the Russian Security Council. But from the president’s office they limited themselves to confirming that Putin was in the Kremlin, constantly receiving reports from the authorities in the area. The same sources affirm that he could convene the Security Council tomorrow, Friday, which is the usual day for this type of meeting, not only because of this incursion but also because of the latest drone attacks.
The attack killed a civilian and injured a 10-year-old boy, the governor said. According to unconfirmed reports from the Russian outlet ‘Shot’, at least two people were killed.
A TASS source said that the “saboteurs” entered two villages, and in one of them they took six people hostage. Then an exchange of fire began between the National Guard fighters and the “saboteurs”.
The authorities in the region confirmed that the security forces were working throughout the territory of the Sushany village. There Ukrainians blew up an electrical substation and a gas station. “The Russian army is already in Sushany, at the moment there is a battle going on,” said the Mash channel at noon.
During the morning media reported on the hostages in Sushan, but the region’s authorities denied it. At the same time, RIA Novosti claimed that several people were taken hostage in a shop in the village of Lyubechan.
It is the first Ukrainian incursion of this nature since Russia invaded the country a year ago. In April 2022, Russia accused Ukraine of bombing its region with helicopters. kyiv, as it usually does after each attack, rejected this claim.
On the other side of the border are the Ukrainian regions of Chernihiv and Sumy. After a few weeks of unsuccessful attacks last year, at the start of the invasion, Russia withdrew its forces from the northern Ukrainian territories bordering Briansk and other regions of Russia, which are now seeing Ukraine strike back.
Bryansk is at a crossroads between Belarus, Ukraine and Russia, the country to which it belongs. Between the 17th and 18th centuries, Peter the Great incorporated Briansk into the administrative division of kyiv, although Catherine the Great annulled this change. In the 20th century it was occupied by the Nazis, who were fought by Russian guerrillas. The guerrillas this time have come from the west.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project