LVIV, Ukraine (Reuters) -Ukraine’s State Security Service (SBU) denied a report earlier on Saturday that Russian helicopters had landed in the Lviv region, a development that would have signalled a widening of the theatre of Moscow’s invasion.
The mayor of Lviv, Andriy Sadovyi, said Russia had landed three helicopters near the city of Brody in the western Lviv region and that Ukrainian forces had repelled the attack.
The SBU said the information was false and that no such landing had taken place. It said a Ukrainian helicopter had done a reconnaissance flight in the area.
“We ask residents to remain calm!” the SBU said in a statement posted on Facebook.
Sadovyi’s office declined to comment and the SBU declined further comment.
The Lviv regional administration said that footage circulating on social media of a helicopter firing rockets in the Lviv region was Ukrainian, not Russian.
“In Brody – everything is quiet!” the statement said. “There is no reason to worry.”
Russian forces pounded Ukrainian cities including the capital Kyiv with artillery and cruise missiles for a third day running on Saturday.
(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk and Natalia Zinets; Writing by Anna Pruchnicka and Matthias Williams; Editing by David Clarke)
