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The Ukrainian military has rejected Russian allegations that a Ukrainian drone struck a bus carrying a children’s football team in Russia’s Bryansk region, calling the accusations false and part of a coordinated disinformation campaign, UATV English reports.
Andrii Kovalov, spokesperson for the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said Ukrainian forces did not conduct any drone strikes in Bryansk Oblast during the period in question.
“During the specified period, the Defense Forces of Ukraine did not use unmanned aerial vehicles against targets in the Bryansk region,” Kovalov said.
He accused Moscow of increasingly relying on information manipulation and fabricated allegations against Ukraine as Russian forces continue to suffer significant battlefield losses.
“The Armed Forces of Ukraine strike only legitimate military targets and do not conduct combat operations against civilians,” Kovalov added.
The General Staff spokesperson also emphasized that Russia continues to carry out daily attacks against Ukrainian cities, residential areas, hospitals, schools, and other civilian infrastructure.
Separately, Andrii Kovalenko, head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation and an officer of the Defense Forces, suggested the incident was part of a Russian information operation aimed at influencing public opinion in Belarus.
According to Kovalenko, Russian authorities fabricated claims about a “terrorist attack on a bus carrying Belarusian children” in an attempt to encourage support among Belarusians for more aggressive actions against Ukraine.
“The provocation is pathetic and bears all the hallmarks of a coordinated operation without any factual evidence. This is typical behavior for Russian propagandists,” Kovalenko said.
Ukrainian officials argue that the Kremlin regularly employs narratives about alleged attacks on civilians in an effort to divert international attention from Russia’s own actions in Ukraine and to discredit the Ukrainian military.
