01:58USA: Washington 'sceptical' over reports of American weapons used in Belgorod attack - State Dept spox Miller
US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said the government was 'sceptical' of reports claiming US weapons were used in an attack in Russia's Belgorod region, while speaking during a press conference in Washington DC on Tuesday.
"I will say that we are sceptical at this time of the veracity of these reports. As a more general principle, as we've said, and I believe I said yesterday we do not encourage or enable strikes inside Russia and we've made that clear but as we've also said it is up to Ukraine to decide how to conduct this war", Miller said.
Russia's Belgorod province, some 600 km from Moscow, has been a frontline region during the conflict between Russian and Ukrainian forces.
During the early hours of Monday, the region's governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, claimed that a Ukrainian 'sabotage group' had entered Russian territory in the Grayvoron district.
Photos were later released and circulated of abandoned and damaged Western military vehicles, including US Humvees.
Two pro-Ukrainian groups, the Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK) and the Russian Freedom Legion, later claimed involvement in the incident, although advisor to the head of the Ukrainian presidential office Mykhailo Podolyak said that Kiev was 'not directly related' to the events on the border.
Miller also called for the 'immediate release' of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, after a Russian court extended the detention of the American journalist by three months.
"We once again call on Russia to comply with their obligation to provide consular access to him. As I discussed yesterday, on Friday they rejected our second request for consular access to them," said Miller.
"The claims against Evan are baseless and we continue to call for his immediate release as well as for the immediate release of Paul Whelan", he added.
31-year-old American citizen Gershkovich was arrested in March on espionage charges. According to the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), he was detained in Yekaterinburg while attempting to collect classified information.
Gershkovich has denied the charges, while his employer has demanded his immediate release. Whelan is serving a 16-year sentence in Russia, also on spying charges, which he denies.
Moscow launched a military offensive in Ukraine in late February 2022 after recognising the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR), claiming that Kiev had failed to guarantee their special status under the 2014 Minsk Agreements, and urging Ukraine to declare itself officially neutral and give assurances that it would never join NATO.
Kiev denounced the Russian action as an invasion. President Volodymyr Zelensky imposed martial law throughout the country, announcing a general mobilisation, while the EU and the US imposed several rounds of sanctions on Moscow.
01:58US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said the government was 'sceptical' of reports claiming US weapons were used in an attack in Russia's Belgorod region, while speaking during a press conference in Washington DC on Tuesday.
"I will say that we are sceptical at this time of the veracity of these reports. As a more general principle, as we've said, and I believe I said yesterday we do not encourage or enable strikes inside Russia and we've made that clear but as we've also said it is up to Ukraine to decide how to conduct this war", Miller said.
Russia's Belgorod province, some 600 km from Moscow, has been a frontline region during the conflict between Russian and Ukrainian forces.
During the early hours of Monday, the region's governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, claimed that a Ukrainian 'sabotage group' had entered Russian territory in the Grayvoron district.
Photos were later released and circulated of abandoned and damaged Western military vehicles, including US Humvees.
Two pro-Ukrainian groups, the Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK) and the Russian Freedom Legion, later claimed involvement in the incident, although advisor to the head of the Ukrainian presidential office Mykhailo Podolyak said that Kiev was 'not directly related' to the events on the border.
Miller also called for the 'immediate release' of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, after a Russian court extended the detention of the American journalist by three months.
"We once again call on Russia to comply with their obligation to provide consular access to him. As I discussed yesterday, on Friday they rejected our second request for consular access to them," said Miller.
"The claims against Evan are baseless and we continue to call for his immediate release as well as for the immediate release of Paul Whelan", he added.
31-year-old American citizen Gershkovich was arrested in March on espionage charges. According to the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), he was detained in Yekaterinburg while attempting to collect classified information.
Gershkovich has denied the charges, while his employer has demanded his immediate release. Whelan is serving a 16-year sentence in Russia, also on spying charges, which he denies.
Moscow launched a military offensive in Ukraine in late February 2022 after recognising the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR), claiming that Kiev had failed to guarantee their special status under the 2014 Minsk Agreements, and urging Ukraine to declare itself officially neutral and give assurances that it would never join NATO.
Kiev denounced the Russian action as an invasion. President Volodymyr Zelensky imposed martial law throughout the country, announcing a general mobilisation, while the EU and the US imposed several rounds of sanctions on Moscow.