KYIV, Ukraine—In a familiar cycle of brinksmanship, Russia and Ukraine once again edged toward the brink of open war last week, only for the bellicose rhetoric and military posturing to dissipate rapidly, leaving the conflict in eastern Ukraine no closer to a long-term solution.
Russia’s successor spy agency to the KGB, the Federal Security Service, or FSB, claimed to have thwarted terrorist attacks Aug. 10 in Crimea, which Russian authorities pinned on the Ukrainian government.
In one incident, an FSB agent died during a raid on a terrorist cell. A Russian soldier also died in a separate, cross-border firefight, the spy agency said.
Following the alleged incursions by Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a chilling message to Kyiv, spurring fears of all-out war when he said Russia “would not let such things pass.”
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko denied Russia’s accusations, calling them “insane.”
“These fantasies pursue only one goal,” Poroshenko said in a statement emailed to journalists in Ukraine. “A pretext for more military threats against Ukraine.”
