Ukrainian sabotage group liquidated while trying to enter Russia - report

The FSB said the alleged saboteurs were armed with foreign-made guns and four improvised explosive devices.

A Ukrainian service member smokes next to armoured personnel carriers, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, on a road in Kherson region, Ukraine, December 9, 2022. (photo credit: REUTERS/ANNA VOITENKO)
A Ukrainian service member smokes next to armoured personnel carriers, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, on a road in Kherson region, Ukraine, December 9, 2022.
(photo credit: REUTERS/ANNA VOITENKO)

Russia's FSB security service said on Monday that a four-person Ukrainian "sabotage group" had been "liquidated" while trying to enter Russia's Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine, on Sunday, Russian news agencies reported.

"As a result of a clash on December 25, 2022, four saboteurs who attempted to penetrate the territory of the Bryansk region from Ukraine were destroyed," state-owned RIA news agency quoted an FSB statement as saying.

Foreign weapons

The FSB said the alleged saboteurs were armed with foreign-made guns and four improvised explosive devices.

Russian state media outlet TASS cited Russia's FSB as stating that the "saboteurs had foreign weapons with them: German submachine guns SIG Sauer and ammunition for them, communication and navigation devices, as well as means for committing sabotage and terrorist acts - four improvised explosive devices with a total capacity of about 40 kg in TNT equivalent". 

 A Ukrainian serviceman is seen as he holds a mortar shell at a frontline, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Donetsk Region, Ukraine, December 22, 2022. (credit: Oleksandr Ratushniak/Reuters)
A Ukrainian serviceman is seen as he holds a mortar shell at a frontline, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Donetsk Region, Ukraine, December 22, 2022. (credit: Oleksandr Ratushniak/Reuters)

There was no immediate comment on the incident from Ukraine.