Putin claims that Ukraine attacked its border while Kyiv dismissed Russian "provocation"

(cnn) ⸻ Russian security officials claimed on Thursday that a small Ukrainian armed group had crossed the Russian border into the southern Bryansk region, allegations dismissed by Kyiv as a "classic deliberate provocation". President Vladimir Putin described the incident as a terrorist attack, and a local official said two civilians were killed and a 10-year-old child was injured. CNN cannot independently verify the Russian claims, and local media have not carried any images of the supposed incidents. US and Ukrainian officials have warned that Russia has planned so-called "false flag" attacks along Russia's border with Ukraine as a pretext for military escalation. Putin canceled a planned trip to southern Russia due to the incident in Bryansk, where he blamed the attack on "neo-Nazis" and promised to "put them away". An adviser in Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky's office, Mykhailo Podolyak, said the alleged raid was either a Russian provocation or the work of local partisans taking a stand against the Kremlin, denying any Ukrainian involvement. Podolyak also said this type of operation was consistent with previous Russian provocations.