MOSCOW. March 3 (Interfax) - The Russian Investigative Committee has qualified the actions of saboteurs in the Bryansk region on Thursday, in which two people were killed, as an act of terrorism, the committee said on Telegram on Friday.
"The Russian Investigative Committee has opened criminal cases into facts of an act of terrorism, endangerment of the lives of law enforcement officials, and destruction of property (Russian Criminal Code Articles 205, 317, and 167)," it said.
"Evidence is being collected and documented to prove the commission of crimes by members of Ukrainian armed groups against civilians and law enforcement officials in the populated areas of Lyubechane and Sushany in the Klimovo district of the Bryansk region," it said.
"At the present time, an investigative team is working in the Bryansk region, which includes investigators, investigative criminologists, and experts from the Russian Investigative Committee's central office and its department for the Bryansk region," it said.
"Officers from the agency are carrying out a set of essential investigative procedures, including the examination of the crime scene, the questioning of witnesses and victims, and some others, aimed at establishing all the circumstances of the incident and identifying those responsible for it to hold them criminally liable," it said.
Bryansk region Governor Alexander Bogomaz said on Thursday morning that Ukrainian saboteurs fired at a car in the Klimovo district, killing two adults and injuring a ten-year-old child.
The Federal Security Service (FSB) said an operation was underway in a border area of the Bryansk region to eliminate armed Ukrainian radicals and demine the terrain.
The FSB said later that the Ukrainian saboteurs were "ousted" from the Bryansk region to Ukrainian territory, where they were attacked with an artillery strike.
President Vladimir Putin described the events as an act of terrorism.