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Screenshot of the alleged shelling of the Grayvoron district near the city of Belgorod
Photo: Baza / Telegram
The governor of Russia's Belgorod region has accused the Ukrainian army of sending saboteurs across the border. A "sabotage group" has reached the district of Grayvoron and thus Russian territory, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov announced on Telegram. The Russian security forces and the army have taken measures to repel the incursion.
Earlier, footage was published on the Basa Telegram channel, which is said to show the attack of a Ukrainian tank on a Russian border post. The Russian region of Belgorod borders Ukraine, its capital of the same name is only a few kilometers away from the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.
The Ukrainian military intelligence service HUR denies that the attack was carried out by Ukrainian soldiers. The units "Russian Volunteer Corps" and "Legion of Freedom of Russia", which consist exclusively of Russian citizens, have "started an operation to liberate the Belgorod region from the so-called Putin regime," military intelligence spokesman Andriy Yusov said on Ukrainian television.
According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, Putin has already been informed about the incidents around Belgorod. Peskov spoke of "Ukrainian sabotage", the sole purpose of which was to distract from the events in the embattled city of Bakhmut. Russian forces are now striving to destroy the "saboteurs". Meanwhile, the Wagner mercenary group has announced that it will withdraw from Bakhmut on June 1.
fin/Reuters/AFP