Incursion in Russian Border Town Puts Kremlin on Emergency Footing

Ukraine is believed to have struck inside Russia on several occasions, including in December, when a drone launched from Russian soil hit a military base in the city of Ryazan. Russia’s Defense Ministry on Wednesday said that its forces had foiled an attack by 10 drones on targets in Crimea but on Thursday it did not mention blasts in Crimea in its daily bulletin.

On Thursday, Ukrainian officials tried to frame the episode in Bryansk as a symptom of internal Russian schisms. 

“This is a sign that Russia can no longer function normally, and this leads to internal destruction,” Andriy Cherniak, a representative for Ukraine’s military intelligence, said in a phone interview.

Oleksiy Danilov, the head of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council, said in a statement that Moscow was facing “a movement of Russian antifascist militias.”