BRYANSK, March 3. /TASS/. Two Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance groups attacked two settlements in the border district of the Bryansk Region on Thursday, the head of Novy Ropsk village Nikolay Samusev told TASS on Friday.
"Yesterday morning, we were informed that a [Ukrainian] sabotage and reconnaissance group had entered Lubechane. We heard shooting at about 8 o'clock, but nobody could understand what it was. Later, we received information from Sushany that armed individuals with yellow armbands were also there. These were different groups. We notified the border guards, and then it was out of our hands," the official said.
According to him, in the village of Sushany, the first sabotage group "just shot and scared people," made a video and "quickly left the site". "They shelled, probably from a grenade launcher, a residential house, which was completely destroyed," Samusev said, noting that there were no casualties in the village, with just one civilian receiving minor wounds.
In the village of Lubechane, according to the official, a second Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance group fired at civilians, took pictures, and reached the medical and obstetric station. "A man was driving home after the end of his shift as an operator of the gas boiler at a local high school, and we were not able to reach him for a long time. No one had any information about him. Then it turned out that he was killed in the car, he was shot," the head of the village added. Novy Ropsk is located between the villages of Sushany and Lubechane.
On Thursday, Ukrainian saboteurs infiltrated the border area of the Bryansk Region. Russia’s Federal Security Service reported that together with Russian Defense Ministry forces it conducted "actions to destroy the armed Ukrainian nationalists who violated the state border". Russian President Vladimir Putin, who canceled a planned trip to Pyatigorsk, slammed the incident as an act of terrorism.