Four Ukrainian fighters trying to cross into Russian border killed, claims Moscow
Aug 16, 2023
Moscow [Russia], August 17 : Russia said on Wednesday that it has “eliminated” four Ukrainian fighters who "tried to cross into" Russia’s borderline Bryansk region from northern Ukraine, state agency TASS reported.
"Thanks to coordinated joint actions by units from the Russian Defense Ministry and Russia’s FSB Border Directorate for the Bryansk Region, today at 07:00 a.m. (local time), an attempt by a Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance group numbering six militants to cross into the Bryansk Region was thwarted. Five saboteurs were eliminated," the regional Governor of Russia, Alexander Bogomaz said on his Telegram channel.
Earlier on Tuesday, during an attempt by a Ukrainian “sabotage and reconnaissance group” to infiltrate the borderline Starodubsky District in the Bryansk Region, a worker at an agricultural enterprise was injured. FSB operatives assisted by the Russian Defense Ministry units eliminated four saboteurs, TASS reported.
Earlier on Wednesday, Russian forces launched a drone attack and damaged a port on the Danube River in Ukraine's southern Odesa region overnight, CNN reported citing a Ukrainian official.
In the Telegram, head of the Odesa regional military administration Oleh Kiper said, "The main target is port and grain infrastructure in the south of the region" on the Danube.
He further stated that no casualties were reported.
Ukraine's Operational Command in the south said Russia hit the territory where one of the ports lie, destroying hangars with grain and agricultural machinery.
Ukraine's Air Force on Wednesday said that it had destroyed 13 Shahed drones over Odesa and the neighbouring Mykolaiv region.
Meanwhile, Ukraine claimed that its forces have recaptured the village of Urozhaine in the eastern Donetsk region, where fierce battles have taken place in recent days, reported CNN.
"Ukrainian defence forces took control of Urozhaine," and are consolidating their positions, Andrii Kovaliov, spokesperson for the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said on national television Wednesday morning.
Urozhaine, located about 100 kilometres southwest of Russian-occupied Donetsk city, lies near the village of Staromaiorske, which Ukrainian soldiers recaptured about two weeks ago.
"Urozhaine was liberated," Ukraine's Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said on Telegram.
