WASHINGTON, May 24. /TASS/. The US government doubts that a Ukrainian sabotage group that infiltrated southwestern Russia’s Belgorod Region used US-made weapons provided by Washington for the attack, Spokesperson for the US Department of State Matthew Miller has said.
"We've seen some of the reports circulating on social media and elsewhere making claims that US-supplied weapons were used in these attacks. I will say that we're skeptical at this time of the veracity of these reports," he told a media briefing on Tuesday.
"As a more general principle, as we've said, as I’ve said yesterday, we do not encourage or enable strikes inside of Russia, and we've made that clear. But as we've also said it is up to Ukraine to decide how to conduct this war," the US diplomat continued.
When asked whether the United States knew exactly who was responsible for the attack, the spokesman replied: "We don’t [know exactly]. We are aware of the reports, but I don’t have any more specific information about it."
A Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance group infiltrated the Belgorod Region’s Grayvoronsky District on May 22. According to the latest data, 13 civilians were wounded. An elderly woman died during the evacuation. Later, the region’s governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, reported the death of a civilian in the village of Kozinka. The Russian defense ministry said earlier on Tuesday that in the course of the anti-terrorist operation Russian forces blocked and eliminated Ukrainian nationalist units who infiltrated the region. According to the ministry, the Ukrainian side lost 70 saboteurs, four armored vehicles and five pickup trucks.