Russia says Ukrainian sabotagers have attacked Russian villages

Russian officials said Thursday that Ukrainian sabotagers crossed the border with western Russia and attacked local villages. Russia's Federal Security Service said fighting with the sabotage unit was taking place in the Russian region of Brynsk.

There was no immediate comment by Ukrainian officials, and the exact circumstances of the incident are still unclear.

If confirmed, there would be another indication, following fears earlier this week, that Kiev could carry the war on Russian territory, exposing Russian defensive weaknesses, embarrassing the Kremlin and sowing concern among Russian civilians.

The Federal Security Service was quoted by Russian state news agency Tass as saying that <x0 operations to eliminate armed Ukrainian nationalists who crossed the state border” were under way.

Tass, quoting Russian law enforcement forces, reported earlier that Ukrainians were holding up to six men hostage. The local governor said the group had hit a vehicle there, killing a man and wounding a 10-year-old.

The Drons that the Kremlin said had departed from Ukraine flew deep into Russian territory on Tuesday, including one that reached 60 miles [100 km] near Moscow.

Tass reported, citing an unidentified security official, that two villages in the Brynsk region of Sushany and Lübechane ) were attacked by several dozen armed fighters”.

In Ukraine on Thursday, three people were killed and six others injured when a Russian rocket hit a five-story apartment building in a southeastern town.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia “wants to turn every day for our people into a terror day”.

However, evil will not reign on our land”, he added.