The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has intercepted an official Russian document that denies a Ukrainian UAV strike on a bus carrying Belarusian citizens in the Bryansk region of the Russian Federation, the Ukrainian intelligence agency has said.
"This refers to an information briefing from the monitoring center ‘State Government Institution of Bryansk Region Safe Region’," the SBU noted on its Telegram channel on Thursday.
According to the report, the relevant document was obtained during SBU counterintelligence operations.
"The summary indicates that at the time of the incident involving the bus, there were no Ukrainian UAVs in the airspace of the area," the SBU said.
The intercepted briefing says regional did not detect any UAVs in the area of the incident.
In addition, as the SBU notes with reference to the document, the presence of drones in the airspace was not confirmed by the officer on duty of the radar battalion in the Russian settlement of Suponevo, and the officer on duty of the 32nd division of Russia did not confirm flights of unmanned aerial vehicles at the corresponding time.
"Thus, the SBU has grounds to believe that the strike on the bus with Belarusian citizens in the Bryansk region of Russia is a special operation by Russian intelligence services," the agency concluded.
Furthermore, the SBU drew attention to the fact that Russia has previously repeatedly accused Ukraine of crimes committed by representatives of the Russian Federation.
"The Russian authorities use such cases to conduct their own psychological operations (PSYOP) and exert pressure on Ukraine in the international arena," the Ukrainian intelligence agency stressed.
A scanned copy of the specified document is included in the SBU statement.
The SBU emphasized that Ukraine and all Security and Defense Forces strictly adhere to the laws and customs of war and operate exclusively against legitimate military targets.
