“Today, the enemy has ramped up its planned destructive information influence with another provocation — it fired artillery at this facility [in Sudzha],” the General Staff claimed in a statement.
“The [Sudzha] station was repeatedly shelled by the Russians themselves,” it added, citing what it said were similar incidents last summer.
Later on Friday, Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed that retreating Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region attacked the Sudzha gas pumping station, calling it a “deliberate provocation... aimed at undermining the peace initiatives of the U.S. President.”