Ukrainian warplane shells Russia – governor
Russia’s Bryansk Region has sustained yet another attack from Ukraine, the local Governor Aleksandr Bogomaz has said.
Early on Saturday, local air defenses detected an attempt by a Ukrainian military plane to violate the country’s airspace, Bogomaz wrote on Telegram.
The aircraft was prevented from making it into Russia, but managed to fire two projectiles, which landed in the village of Zhecha, not far from the two country's shared border with Ukraine, he outlined.
Fatalities and injuries were avoided during the attack, but the facilities of the local oil loading terminal suffered minor damage from shockwaves.
The governor attached images of a large shell crater and damaged buildings in his post.
The Bryansk Region was the scene of the first major Ukrainian attack on Russian soil during the ongoing conflict. According to the Investigative Committee, two Ukrainian helicopters struck the village of Klimovo on April 14, injuring six people, including a two-year-old boy and his pregnant mother.
Ukrainian shelling in Bryansk and the neighboring Belgorod and Kursk Regions have intensified since then. They have mainly targeted oil refineries and other infrastructure, but residential areas have also being hit.
Moscow has warned that it will strike “decision-making centers in Kiev” if such attacks continue.
Russia sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, following Kiev’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements, first signed in 2014, and Moscow’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. The German- and French-brokered Minsk Protocol was designed to give the breakaway regions special status within the Ukrainian state.
The Kremlin has since demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join NATO. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked and has denied claims it was planning to retake the two republics by force.
