Russia: Fighting intensifies in border area near Ukraine
Putin spoke of Ukrainian saboteurs infiltrating Russian territory and opening fire on civilians. EPA.
Moscow said yesterday that fighting is raging in Russia's southwestern Priyank region, near the border with Ukraine, although Ukrainian observers denied this, as a Russian diplomat warned that increased Western support for Ukraine could fuel an open conflict between nuclear powers.
Russia's Interfax news agency quoted the domestic intelligence agency as saying that Russian forces carried out an operation in the Klimovsk region to "destroy armed Ukrainian nationalists" who had breached the border.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised address that the Russian military "protects Russia and our people from neo-Nazis and terrorists. Those who carried out a new terrorist attack today, infiltrated our border territory and opened fire on civilians."
In Kiev, Ukrainian observers warned against Russian disinformation.
The adviser to the office of the Ukrainian President Mykhailo Podolyak spoke of a "classic provocation".
The governor of the region, Alexander Bogomas, had earlier spoken of a Ukrainian sabotage squad bombing a civilian vehicle.
Ukrainian authorities have denied reports of a hostage-taking and shooting at a school bus.
She said schools in areas near the border had been following the distance learning system for several months.
In Zaporizhyea in southern Ukraine, local authorities said at least three people were killed and six wounded in shelling yesterday on an apartment building.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced the attack, saying it was the work of "a country that wants to make every day of ours a day of terror."
In Geneva, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov warned that increased Western support for Ukraine could fuel an open conflict between nuclear powers.
At a U.N. conference on disarmament, Ryabkov condemned the U.S. and its allies' declaration of the goal of defeating Russia in a "hybrid" war.