Ukraine has denied claims that saboteurs crossed into western Russia and attacked villages, warning that Moscow could use the false allegations to justify stepping up its own attacks.
The exact circumstances of the incident reported in the Bryansk region were unclear, including what the strategic purpose of such an attack would be.
Russian president Vladimir Putin blamed Ukrainian “terrorists” for an incursion, claiming that they deliberately targeted civilians.
“It was yet another terror attack, another crime,” Mr Putin said during a video call. “They infiltrated the area near the border and opened fire on civilians.”
The illegal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine is continuing.
The map below is the latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine – 02 March 2023.
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Asked by reporters whether it could warrant a change in the status of what Russia still calls “the special military operation” in Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded with a coy “I can’t say for now”.
Mr Peskov said that Mr Putin cancelled a planned trip to southern Russia on Thursday and was receiving reports on the situation from the regional governor.
The alleged incursion came just days after Mr Putin ordered the Federal Security Service to tighten controls on Russia’s border with Ukraine.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak described the Russian reports as “a classic deliberate provocation”.
Russia “wants to scare its people to justify the attack on another country (and) the growing poverty after the year of war”, he tweeted, suggesting that the attack was the work of Russian partisans.
Russia’s Federal Security Service said fighting with the sabotage unit was taking place in the Bryansk region.
The FSB was quoted by the Russian state Tass news agency as saying “activities to eliminate armed Ukrainian nationalists who violated the state border” were under way.
Tass, citing Russian police, reported earlier that the saboteurs were holding up to six people hostage. Two villages in the Bryansk region — Sushany and Lyubechane — were under attack by “several dozen armed fighters”, it claimed.
Alexander Bogomaz, the governor of the Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine, said the group fired at a vehicle in Lyubechane, killing a man and wounding a child. He also said a Ukrainian drone hit a house in Sushany, setting it on fire.
Drones that the Kremlin said were launched by Ukraine flew deep inside Russian territory on Tuesday, including one that got within 60 miles of Moscow.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 2 March 2023
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In Ukraine on Thursday, three people were killed and six others were hurt when a Russian missile hit a five-storey apartment building in a southeastern city.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said several floors of the building were destroyed in the strike, which happened while it was still dark.
The State Emergency Service said in an online statement it had rescued 11 people so far.
Zaporizhzhia is a large city which had a population of more than 700,000 before Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbour just over a year ago.
It is the administrative capital of the partially occupied Zaporizhzhia region, which is home to Europe’s largest nuclear plant.
Russian artillery, drones and missiles have pounded Ukrainian-held areas in the country’s south and east for months. Moscow denies aiming at civilian targets but its indiscriminate shelling has wrought destruction in urban centres.
The war largely slowed to a grinding stalemate during the winter months.
Mr Zelenskiy said Russia “wants to turn every day for our people into a day of terror”. He added: “But evil will not reign in our land.”
Meanwhile, a fierce battle continued for control of Bakhmut, a key eastern stronghold where Ukrainian officials say they might strategically withdraw.
Ukraine’s general staff said Russian forces “continue to advance and storm the city” but Kyiv’s troops repelled some of the attacks on the ruined city.
Donetsk regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said one person was wounded in Bakhmut on Thursday morning.
Bakhmut was among cities and villages in the Donetsk region that came under Russian shelling, according to the General Staff update.
Taking the city could not only give the Russian forces a rare battlefield gain after months of setbacks but might rupture Ukraine’s supply lines and allow the Kremlin’s forces to press toward other Ukrainian strongholds in Donetsk.
