Russia blames ‘terrorists’ after reports of fighting near Ukraine border

Mykhailo Podolyak, Ukrainian presidential adviser, said: ‘[Russia] wants to scare its people to justify the attack on another country &and the growing poverty after the year of war.’ Photograph: Reuters

The Kremlin has claimed Russia has been attacked by “terrorists” after conflicting reports of firefights emerged from the Bryansk and Kursk regions, which Russian media blamed on Ukrainian “sabotage groups” and Ukrainian sources called a “provocation”.

The reports of fighting in Russia near the Ukrainian border began on Thursday morning. The head of the Bryansk region claimed that a “sabotage group opened fire on a moving automobile. As a result, one resident was killed; a 10-year-old child was injured.”