A guard post along the border between Russia and Ukraine has been hit by a projectile launched from across the frontier, the country’s top security agency has reported, amid a worsening military standoff in the neighboring Donbass region.
In a statement released on Monday, officials from the FSB’s press service announced that “on February 21, at 9:50 AM, a shell of an unknown type, fired from Ukrainian territory, completely destroyed the place of work of guards from the border department of Russia’s Federal Security Service in the Rostov region.”
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The FSB said that the post is located around 150 meters from the Russian-Ukrainian border, close to the village of Shcherbakovo, Neklinovsky district. No casualties have been reported, and explosives specialists are said to have been brought in to ensure the site is safe.
A video shared by the agency shows what appears to be a destroyed structure in an isolated area close to the demarcation line, surrounded by trees and fields. No other damage or facilities can be seen in the clip.
While authorities have not announced who they believe is responsible for the incident, Aleksey Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine’s’ National Security and Defense Council, said shortly after reports were published that his country’s armed forces were not to blame and denied reports its troops were firing artillery.
The incident comes amid claims of a sharp spike in hostilities between the two breakaway self-declared Donbass republics in Donetsk and Lugansk and Kiev’s forces. Both sides have accused each other of heavy shelling, with international observers warning of a worsening crisis.