what happened in the Bryansk region “will be sorted out”

Vladimir Putin will hold an operational meeting with members of the Security Council on Friday. This was confirmed by Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov. The meeting is expected to discuss the events of March 2 in the Bryansk region. There, within a few hours, two villages were under the control of armed detachments that had crossed the Ukrainian-Russian border. Putin called what happened a terrorist attack.

As Peskov said, what happened “will be investigated” and “measures will be taken to prevent this from happening in the future.”

The Russian authorities claim that the attack on the Bryansk region was carried out by two Ukrainian sabotage and intelligence groups. However, the so-called Russian volunteer corps took responsibility for the raid on the villages of Lyubechane and Sushany. This is an armed formation of Russian emigrants of far-right views, fighting on the side of Ukraine.

At the same time, representatives of the Ukrainian authorities deny that Kyiv has any relation to what happened in the Bryansk region, calling it an internal struggle in Russia. “Guerrillas who attack populated areas are direct consequences of control in Russia, and all of these are consequences of the war. Ukraine has nothing to do with internal conflicts in the Russian Federation” – wrote on Twitter, the adviser of the Office of the President of Ukraine Mykhailo Podolyak.

Russian FSB on Friday posted a video, on which, as it turns out, two cars are depicted, on which the alleged saboteurs opened fire. The video shows “Zhigula” hit by bullets, as well as the “Niva” car, the bodies of two dead people can be seen behind the wheel. The video also shows mines allegedly left by saboteurs. The day before, it was reported that a Russian Guard car exploded on one of the mines, four soldiers were injured.

The video is edited, it is impossible to determine where the footage was taken. Telegram channel “We can explain” drew attention to the fact that in the videos the car is in one place, and in the photos shown in the same video – in another.

According to the official data of the Russian authorities, two civilians were killed during the attack (they were driving cars) and a boy was wounded. The Kremlin has already promised to reward him. In a video recorded in the village of Lyubechane, the fighters of the RDK declared that they were not fighting civilians.

Telegram channels “Baza” and “Astra” also claim that two border guards were injured. It has not been officially confirmed.

There is no accurate information on whether there was any armed conflict between the Russian security forces and the Russian Volunteer Corps. Judging by reports from the RDK, his fighters left the village before the Russian military tried to recapture them. According to the chronology of events published by “Baza”, the first signals about armed people in the villages began to arrive from their residents around 8 o’clock in the morning on Thursday, however, the so-called “Edelweiss” signal about a terrorist attack was announced by the local FSB only around noon – then the first messages appeared in mass media and Telegram channels.

The FSB reported the previous evening that the saboteurs had been “squeezed” into the territory of Ukraine and had been subjected to a “massive artillery strike”.

Apparently, there were neither border guards nor police on the border line or in the villages. At the same time, exactly one month ago, Andrey Turchak, secretary of the General Council of United Russia, visited the Bryansk region and stated: “The experience of the Bryansk region, without exaggeration, can be called advanced. The border was strengthened in a very tight time frame – a mouse will not slip through.”

• On February 24, 2022, the Russian military launched a large-scale invasion of the territory of Ukraine. The war has not been officially declared, the Russian authorities call what is happening a “special military operation”. At the same time, pro-Kremlin commentators angrily condemn the alleged Ukrainian shelling of Russian territory (Kiev either denies them or does not comment) and yesterday’s incident in the Bryansk region, accusing Ukraine of aggression and “terrorist attacks”.