Ukrainian member of Parliament Kira Rudik on Friday told Newsmax that she could not confirm or deny reports that Ukraine launched a helicopter attack on a fuel depot on Russian soil.
"Could it be Russia that created the explosion themselves to justify breaking the peace talks? Yes. Could it be some pilot from the Ukrainian army who saw an opportunity and decided to take a chance? We all know how brave Ukrainian pilots are. It could be," Rudik told Newsmax's "Eric Bolling: The Balance."
"We cannot confirm or deny that it was the Ukrainian army. But I can tell you that my country is doing everything to protect itself and its citizens and the investigation will show what happened there."
If Moscow's claim is confirmed, it would be the war's first known attack in which Ukrainian aircraft penetrated Russian airspace.
"Certainly, this is not something that can be perceived as creating comfortable conditions for the continuation of the talks," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, five weeks after Moscow began sending upward of 150,000 of its own troops across Ukraine's border.
Rudik also said Russia has changed its tactics "because their ground troops are definitely losing, and their losses are incredible."
"But they continue and intensify the shelling. Every single city right now that we are taking back, we see that it is all mined with different equipment and mines. They are pulling back without actually pulling back. They still want to destroy us, and they will intensify the shelling because basically you cannot get anything back from it.
"When the ground troops are fighting, we can kill them. When they are just throwing their missiles at us, there is not much we can do. On the day 37 of war, we did not get the necessary support we needed from our allies."
The invasion has left thousands dead and driven more than 4 million refugees from Ukraine.
Mariupol, the shattered and besieged southern port city, has seen some of the worst suffering of the war. Its capture would be a major prize for Russian President Vladimir Putin, giving his country an unbroken land bridge to Crimea, seized from Ukraine in 2014.
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Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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