{"id":1390453,"date":"2026-06-17T16:35:43","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T13:35:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/?p=1390453"},"modified":"2026-06-17T16:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T13:40:09","slug":"ukrainian-denies-russian-claims-of-drone-attack-on-bus-carrying-children-s-football-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/ukrainian-denies-russian-claims-of-drone-attack-on-bus-carrying-children-s-football-team\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine Denies Russian Claims of Drone Attack on Bus Carrying Children’s Football Team"},"content":{"rendered":"

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<\/a> reports.<\/p>\n

Andrii Kovalov, spokesperson for the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said<\/a> Ukrainian forces did not conduct any drone strikes in Bryansk Oblast during the period in question.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the specified period, the Defense Forces of Ukraine did not use unmanned aerial vehicles against targets in the Bryansk region,\u201d Kovalov said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

He accused Moscow of increasingly relying on information manipulation and fabricated allegations against Ukraine as Russian forces continue to suffer significant battlefield losses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Armed Forces of Ukraine strike only legitimate military targets and do not conduct combat operations against civilians,\u201d Kovalov added.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Separately, Andrii Kovalenko, head of Ukraine\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

According to Kovalenko, Russian authorities fabricated claims about a \u201cterrorist attack on a bus carrying Belarusian children\u201d in an attempt to encourage support among Belarusians for more aggressive actions against Ukraine.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe provocation is pathetic and bears all the hallmarks of a coordinated operation without any factual evidence. This is typical behavior for Russian propagandists,\u201d Kovalenko said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Ukrainian officials argue that the Kremlin regularly employs narratives about alleged attacks on civilians in an effort to divert international attention from Russia\u2019s own actions in Ukraine and to discredit the Ukrainian military.<\/p>\n

Read also:<\/strong> Russia Builds Influence Network in Africa Through Education and \u201cRussian Houses,\u201d Ukrainian Intelligence Says<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Ukrainian military has rejected Russian allegations that a Ukrainian drone struck …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":1319822,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,36415,53,36422,55,50],"tags":[76,78,72930],"sources":[],"class_list":["post-1390453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-en","category-11473-news-en","category-russia-en","category-11473-news-en-3","category-ukraine-en","category-svit-en","tag-glavnoe-en","tag-homepage-en","tag-russian-disinformation"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nUkraine Denies Russian Claims of Drone Attack on Bus Carrying Children's Football Team - Freedom<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/ukrainian-denies-russian-claims-of-drone-attack-on-bus-carrying-children-s-football-team\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ukraine Denies Russian Claims of Drone Attack on Bus Carrying Children's Football Team - 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