Ukraine's National Security And Defense Council On Russian Bridge Bombings: Bryansk-Kursk Sugar

• 1.06.2025, 15:56

Did Russia launch a provocation ahead of the talks?

The collapses of bridges in the Bryansk and Kursk regions of Russia's aggressor country, which killed people, may be in the Kremlin's interests. The head of the Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Andriy Kovalenko said this on June 1 in Telegram.

"These events are taking place two days before the ceasefire talks in Istanbul. At the same time, Moscow has not handed over a single memorandum with proposals and is sending a delegation there without authority. It seems that the Kremlin is preparing the ground for disrupting the talks with an image attack on Ukraine in the international media field. Again there is a temptation to show us as a terrorist country in order to avoid dialog and continue the summer offensive, which has already begun in Sumy region, in Zaporizhzhya region, and continues in the east," he wrote.

Kovalenko called these events "Bryansk-Kursk sugar," paraphrasing the expression "Ryazan sugar," which is used to refer to a number of terrorist attacks in Russia in 1999. He noted that this is not the first time Russia has used subversion under someone else's rule.

"In 1999, the terrorist attacks in Ryazan became a launching pad for [illegitimate Russian President Vladimir] Putin. The old tactics are probably being revisited again. This time not for internal mobilization, but for international manipulation," the head of the CPD said.

He stressed that Ukraine has no motive to disrupt the upcoming talks in Istanbul, and on the contrary, it has long agreed to a ceasefire.

"A rail war in the style of World War II is an argument for Russian propaganda, not an instrument of our policy," Kovalenko concluded.