Ukraine ‘sabotage group’ battle with Putin’s forces INSIDE Russia: Raises ‘false flag’ attack fears

Russian forces are fighting to ‘eliminate’ a Ukrainian sabotage group in the Bryansk region which borders Ukraine after the group took hostages in a shop, Russian news agencies reported on Thursday, while some warned of a ‘false flag’ attack.

‘A group of Ukrainian saboteurs infiltrated two villages, taking local residents hostage in one of them. Soldiers from Rosgvardia clashed with the militants,’ TASS quoted an unnamed source in Russia’s security services as saying.

Quoting local emergency services, the RIA news agency said several people had been taken hostage in a store in the village of Lubechanye, less than one mile from Russia’s border with Ukraine.

‘A reconnaissance and sabotage group penetrated from Ukraine to the Klimovsky district in the village of Lyubechane… The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation are taking all the necessary measures to eliminate the sabotage group,’ the Bryansk regional governor Alexander Bogomaz said in a statement online. 

Shortly after the initial reports, Vladimir Putin called an emergency meeting of his security council today – as Ukrainian Telegram channels warned that the reports could be a Russian ‘false flag’ attack.

Kremlin spokesman Dimitry Peskov called the reported events in the region a ‘terrorist attack,’ and said that Putin’s top officials were being sent data updates from security agencies and Russia’s defence minister on the situation.  

The FSB security service said in a statement to Russian news agencies on Thursday that its own forces and the army were trying to liquidate what it described as ‘an armed group of Ukrainian nationalists’ who had crossed the border.

Ukraine and its western allies have warned about false flag attacks in the past, fearing Moscow could use manufactured provocations to justify further escalations in the Russian president’s invasion of Ukraine.

There was no immediate proof or confirmation of the alleged Ukrainian incursion outside of Russian reports.

Earlier, governor Bogomaz had said that the supposed Ukrainian ‘sabotage group’ had shot and killed one person after crossing into Russia from Ukraine.

‘Today, a Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance group penetrated the Klimovsky district in the village of Lubechanye. Saboteurs fired on a moving car,’ he said.

‘As a result of the attack, one resident was killed and a ten-year-old child was wounded,’ Bogomaz wrote on his Telegram channel.

He said Ukrainian armed forces had also launched a drone attack and fired artillery shells at other areas near the border.

Russia’s border regions have been increasingly volatile since Moscow sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine a year ago in what it called its ‘special military operation’ with reports of shelling and sporadic sabotage. 

The reported attack comes after several drones, understood to be Ukrainian-operated, made attacks or attempted attacks in western Russian regions.

Ukrainian officials did not immediately take responsibility for the drone attacks, but they similarly have avoided directly acknowledging responsibility for past strikes and sabotage while emphasising Ukraine’s right to hit any target in Russia.

Meanwhile, British military intelligence said on Wednesday that Russia was launching drone attacks against Ukraine from the Bryansk region, which lies to the north of Ukraine and is closer to the capital Kyiv than other launch sites.

Russia’s border regions have been increasingly volatile since Moscow sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine a year ago in what it called its ‘special military operation’ with reports of shelling and sporadic sabotage

Russia has accused Ukrainian saboteurs of infiltrating Bryansk before.

In December, the FSB security service said a four-person Ukrainian ‘sabotage group’ had been ‘liquidated’ while trying to enter Bryansk. 

Putin told the FSB this week that it needed to step up its guard against espionage and what he called terrorist threats emanating from Ukraine and the West.

‘Your task is to put a barrier in the way of sabotage groups, to stop attempts to illegally transport weapons and ammunition into Russia,’ he said in a speech on Tuesday.

This is a breaking news story. More to follow…