Russian group linked to Ukraine says it has taken over a Russian village

A group of Russian partisans with ties to the Ukrainian military claimed on Thursday that they briefly took control of a small border village, in what would be a rare known example of saboteurs crossing Russia to carry out an operation.

President Vladimir V. Putin canceled a planned trip to the Caucasus region to learn about the incursion, said said the Kremlin. He denounced the episode as a "terrorist" attack, a label that Russia frequently applies to military setbacks in the war in Ukraine.

It is still unclear what happened in the village, although the incursion appeared to be over on Thursday afternoon. The group that claimed responsibility, the Russian Volunteer Corps, is led by an exiled Russian nationalist who opposes Mr. Putin's regime and fights for the Ukrainian cause.

It is unclear if the group is operating with the consent of the Ukrainian government, as it claims.

The group released a video of two armed men outside what appeared to be a medical building in the village of Lyubichane, in the Russian region of Bryansk, near the Ukrainian border.

" The Russian Volunteer Corps came to the Bryansk region to show compatriots that there is hope that the free Russian people with weapons in their hands can fight the regime,” said a caption on the video that the organization posted on the Telegram messaging app. The authenticity of the video and the details of the incident could not be verified. ed independently.

Ukrainian intelligence officials tried to portray the incident as evidence of Russian divisions. "It's a sign that Russia can no longer function normally and it leads to internal destruction," Andriy Cherniak, a representative of Ukrainian military intelligence, said in a telephone interview.

Mr. Putin accused the saboteurs of opening fire on civilians and children, a claim that could not be independently verified.

Mr. Putin was closely monitoring developments in the Bryansk region, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry S. Peskov told reporters. He added that Mr Putin received regular reports from officials in Bryansk.

Oleksiy Danilov, the head of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, said Thursday in a statement that Moscow was facing "a movement of Russian anti-fascist militias".

There is no evidence that the Russian Volunteer Corps or other Russian armed groups fighting the Kremlin have a broad base of support inside Russia.

The governor of Bryansk said earlier Thursday that a sabotage group entered Lyubichane and opened fire on a vehicle, killing the driver and injuring a child. Russian state news agencies published conflicting information about the episode throughout Thursday. They initially claimed that saboteurs had taken up to six people hostage, but later backtracked, reporting that local officials had no information about the hostage-taking. The agency said the saboteurs had already left Russia on Thursday afternoon. But Mr Peskov said "all measures are being taken to liquidate these terrorists".

Ukrainian units carried out sabotage operations on Ukrainian territory held by Russia throughout the war. Ukraine has also reportedly struck several times inside Russia, including in December when a drone launched from Russian soil hit a military base in the city of Ryazan. Ukrainian officials are often deliberately vague about strikes inside Russia, though they sometimes nod at them with cryptic non-denials.

Some Russian war supporters cited the incursion to demand an escalation of the conflict in Ukraine, which began when Mr Putin launched his full-scale invasion last year.

"The last red lines were erased today in the Bryansk region," Konstantin Malofeev, an ultranationalist tycoon, wrote on Telegram. “Now anyone who even whispers about peace...