The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has warned that Russian special services are preparing to accuse Ukrainians of fictitious war crimes in the Kursk Region. The Russian side is creating and spreading fakes and information injections, the SBU press service warned.
These Russian information and psychological special operations are primarily related to the inability to effectively counter the offensive of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. According to the SBU, in the near future, Russia's special services may resort to staging crimes, in particular against the civilian population of Kursk Region, in order to further accuse the Ukrainian side of committing them.
"The SBU warns that such attempts are futile and will not influence either the offensive actions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces or the opinion of our country's international partners. After all, the Ukrainian Defence Forces have proved to the whole world that they strictly adhere to the rules and customs of warfare. In particular, both with regard to the treatment of Russian prisoners of war and civilians," the statement said.
Context
On 6 August, there was talk of a border breakthrough in the Kursk Region. At first, the Russians claimed that their FSB had contained the attack, but later admitted that a certain number of soldiers and equipment had entered their territory. Pro-war Russian bloggers wrote about the loss of some settlements. Partial evacuations were also announced there, and Putin even commented on the border breach.
Ukraine has not commented on the operation in the Kursk Region. Only the head of the Centre for Countering Disinformation, Andriy Kovalenko, said on the first day that Russian claims of border control were untrue.
Ukraine's allies have been cautious in their assessments of the events, but both the EU and the US have stressed that Ukraine has the right to defend itself.