Russia claims shell fired from Ukraine destroys border post

MOSCOW

The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) on Monday claimed that a shell fired from Ukraine completely destroyed a Russian border post in the southern Rostov region.

In a statement, FSB said that the blast did not cause any casualties.

On Feb. 19, the Russian Investigative Committee opened a criminal case after what it called the shelling of the Rostov region from Ukraine.

According to investigators, unidentified persons fired shells from multiple missile launcher systems at the border areas in the Tarasovsky district.

At least two missiles hit the ground just 300 meters from the settlement of Mityakinskaya, the investigators said.

Separately, the pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine's Donetsk region claimed that a sabotage group blew up a warehouse of rocket and artillery weapons in Donetsk and tried to reach the Russian border.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has denied that the country was responsible for any such military action.

“The last thing we are interested in is to further escalate the situation," Kuleba said over the weekend, following reports of shelling in the region.

Tensions have risen dramatically in eastern Ukraine last week, with reports of a growing number of cease-fire violations, multiple shelling incidents, and evacuation of civilians from the pro-Russian separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

The US administration has accused Russia of amassing nearly 150,000 troops along the Ukrainian border, and claimed that Moscow was "planning to manufacture a pretext" to attack Ukraine in the coming days.

Moscow has repeatedly denied any plan to invade Ukraine and instead accused Western countries of undermining Russia’s security through NATO’s expansion toward its borders.