Russia accuses Kyiv of planning ‘staged strike’ on Ukrainian children’s facility

Moscow claimed on Monday that Kyiv is planning a "staged Russian missile strike" on a children's institution in territory under Ukrainian control.

The Russian state news agency TASS reported that a statement by the country's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) claimed Kyiv is planning a "staged Russian missile strike" on either a hospital or kindergarten in territory under Ukraine's control.

The SVR did not specify what it meant by Ukrainian-controlled territory, though it further claimed that the incident was planned by Ukraine "at the instigation of their curators from the U.S."

"This tragedy is expected to be widely covered by the media, involving leading international media," the statement said.

It also claimed that Ukraine intends to use the incident to raise the morale of the country's military, in addition, to justify the lifting of restrictions on its use of Western weapons for long-range strikes on Russia and attracting the Global South's support for Kyiv.

It went on to argue that the U.S. wants to use this incident to increase political pressure on Iran and North Korea, which it said are accused of supplying Moscow with ballistic missiles.

Neither Ukrainian nor U.S. authorities have yet commented on Russia's claim.

Media reports earlier this month claimed that a batch of 200 Iranian ballistic missiles had already arrived on Sept. 4 at an unspecified port on the Caspian Sea.

The Kremlin, as well as Iranian authorities, have rejected the transfer of ballistic missiles to Moscow.

Meanwhile, Pyongyang has neither confirmed nor denied the claims.