Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said it stopped an attempt by a Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance group to enter the southwestern Bryansk region, which neighbors northern Ukraine, Russian state media reported on Wednesday.
“The FSB together with forces of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation thwarted an attempt to enter the territory of the Russian Federation by a Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance group in the border Starodubsky district of the Bryansk region,” the FSB said in a statement, according to Russian state media TASS. “Four saboteurs were destroyed.”
The agency added that “in addition to foreign weapons, explosive devices, communication and navigation devices, FPV drones with stickers ‘Property of the FSB of Russia’ and Russian symbols were found at the site of the clash.”
On Tuesday, Bryansk Gov. Alexander Bogomaz, said another Ukrainian sabotage group attempted to enter Russia’s territory.
Some more background: In March, Russian security officials claimed that a small Ukrainian armed group crossed the border into Bryansk, allegations dismissed by Kyiv as a “classic deliberate provocation” by the Kremlin.
The FSB said it was carrying out operations following “armed Ukrainian nationalists who violated the state border” in the district, according to state-run news agency RIA Novosti. Russian President Vladimir Putin later described the incident as a terrorist attack, and a local official said two civilians were killed.
Then in May, a group of anti-Putin Russian nationals, who are aligned with the Ukrainian army, claimed responsibility for an attack in Russian’s southwestern region of Belgorod.
Last month, a Ukrainian drone hit the Department of Internal Affairs in Bryansk, destroying the building’s roof and windows, Bogomaz said.
