Russian Military and FSB Prevent Illegal Crossing of Border by Sabotage Group From Ukraine

The development comes amid the continued escalation of fighting in the Donbass breakaway regions of Donetsk and Lugansk, which have reported intensified shelling, mortar fire, sniping, and sabotage attacks by Ukrainian forces. The breakaways mobilised their reserves and announced an evacuation of the civilian populations to Russia on Friday.

Five members of a Ukrainian sabotage group have been killed by Russian troops and FSB border guard forces after attempting to illegally cross the Russian border, the press service of Russia's Southern Military District has announced.

The incident was said to have taken place near the border between Ukraine and the Russian region of Rostov.

"On 21 February 2022 at about 6 am Moscow time, on a section of the state border between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Ukraine in the area of the settlement of Mityakinskaya, Rostov region, an FSB border detachment discovered infiltration by a sabotage and reconnaissance group," the Southern Military District said in a statement.

"In order to detain the sabotage group, the FSB border patrol detachment requested reinforcements from a military unit from the Southern Military District allocated to provide operational cover of the state border," the military added.

During the firefight that ensued, two Ukrainian Armed Forces infantry fighting vehicles were said to have attempted to pick up the saboteurs but were destroyed by Russian Army forces using anti-tank weapons after crossing into Russia.

Russian troops and border guards did not suffer any casualties, according to the military.

The Southern Military District's press service did not elaborate on why the attempt to detain the saboteurs ended in bloodshed.

Kiev dismissed the report as "fake news," saying no Ukrainian forces were present in the area where the incident was said to have taken place, according to Reuters.

Earlier in the day, the press service of the Donetsk People's Republic's People's Militia said that its troops were battling with Ukrainian forces on the outskirts of the town of Novoazovsk amid an alleged attempt by Kiev's troops to reach the Russian border.

Monday's incident was at least the third time that the escalating conflict in the Donbass has spilled into Russia in the past 48 hours. Earlier in the day, the FSB reported that a projectile fired from the Ukrainian side destroyed a border patrol outpost in Rostov. No one was hurt in that incident.

On Sunday, two shells fired from the Ukrainian side of the border landed in Russia, with one of them destroying an abandoned home. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed reports on that incident as "a blunt provocation" and "pure lies" by Russia.

The unprecedented escalation of tensions between Russia and Ukraine following the border incidents comes in the midst of the eighth anniversary of the Maidan coup – the successful February 2014 operation by the United States and the European Union to help overthrow Ukraine's democratically elected, geopolitical neutrality-seeking government with one demanding entry into NATO and the European Union.