Putin says alleged incursion into Russia’s Bryansk region is ‘terrorist attack’ by ‘armed Ukrainian nationalists’

Vladimir Putin has denounced a supposed incursion by a Ukrainian “sabotage and reconnaissance group” into Russia’s Bryansk region as a terrorist attack. The president delivered these remarks while speaking remotely at a Teacher of the Year ceremony.

Specifically, Putin accused the alleged saboteurs of firing on civilians and civilian vehicles and said Russian troops would respond by “destroying the armed Ukrainian nationalists who violated Russia’s border.” Putin also said the attackers — “neo-Nazis and their masters” — seek to “rob us of our historical memory, our own history, our own traditions, and our own language.”

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the Zelensky administration in Kyiv, has denied any Ukrainian involvement in Thursday’s events outside Bryansk, calling the episode a “classic deliberate provocation,” supposedly to scare Russians in the face of a “partisan movement” that is “getting stronger and more aggressive.”