Podolyak: reports of ‘Ukrainian saboteurs’ in Bryansk region a ‘classic provocation’

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the Zelensky administration in Kyiv, called reports of a “Ukrainian saboteur group” infiltrating the Bryansk region a “classic provocation.”

“The story about a Ukrainian sabotage group in RF is a classic deliberate provocation. RF wants to scare its people to justify the attack on another country & the growing poverty after the year of war. The partisan movement in RF is getting stronger & more aggressive. Fear your partisans...” Podolyak tweeted.

Ukrainian Border Guard Service spokesman Andriy Demchenko also called reports of a “Ukrainian saboteurs” in Russia unfounded. “The fact that Russia is now disseminating information about some Ukrainian saboteurs on the territory of Russia, I can point out that Ukraine is not the aggressor, our main task is defense and protection from the occupying country. What could have happened on Russian territory, I do not know anything,” he said.

Shortly before Podolyak’s statement, the Russian Volunteer Corps (which, according to its own claim, is part of the Ukrainian Armed Forces) published a video on Telegram showing two soldiers standing at the entrance of a medical clinic in the village of Liubechane in the Bryansk region. In the video, the fighters stated that they “are not at war with civilians,” and called on Russian citizens to “revolt and fight.