The Security Service of Ukraine has intercepted an official russian document denying Ukraine’s involvement in the attack on a bus carrying Belarusian citizens in the Bryansk region of russia.

The document in question is an information report from the ‘Safe Region’ State Public Institution of the Bryansk Region’s monitoring centre. It was obtained by the SSU during counterintelligence operations. It states that, at the time of the incident involving the bus, there were no Ukrainian UAVs in the region’s airspace.

In particular, the report states that:

• the so-called ‘Regional Segment of the Operational Headquarters of the Unified National Centre’ did not detect any UAVs in the vicinity of the incident;
• the duty officer at the radar battalion in the russian settlement of Suponevo did not confirm the presence of drones in the airspace;
• furthermore, the duty officer of the 32^nd division of the occupying forces did not confirm any drone flights at the relevant time.

Consequently, the SSU has grounds to believe that the attack on the bus carrying Belarusian citizens in the Bryansk region, russia, was a special operation carried out by the russian intelligence services.

We would like to point out that the aggressor state has previously accused Ukraine of crimes committed by the russian federation on numerous occasions. The russian authorities exploit such incidents to conduct their information and psychological operations, and to exert pressure on Ukraine on the international arena.

At the same time, we emphasise once again that Ukraine and all our state Security and Defence Forces strictly adhere to the laws and customs of war, striking exclusively legitimate military targets.