Putin cites ‘grave concern’ over rocket hit

1 killed, 2 injured by Ukrainian shell near border

Russian President Vladimir Putin attended the World Cup final between Germany and Argentina on Sunday in Rio de Janeiro.

MOSCOW — Russia’s foreign ministry said Sunday that a Ukrainian shell hit a Russian border town, killing one person and injuring two others.

Ukraine denied firing a shell into Russian territory.

Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed “grave concern” over the incident, Russian news agencies quoted his spokesman as saying.

Russia’s foreign ministry labeled the event a provocation and warned of the possibility of “irreversible consequences, the responsibility for which lies on the Ukrainian side.”

Russia said the shell hit the courtyard of a residential building in the Russian town of Donetsk — near the Ukrainian city of the same name that has become a rebel stronghold — early on Sunday.

Ukraine’s restless east has been mired in a pro-Russian separatist insurgency against the Kiev government.

Ukrainian officials denied that any Ukrainian shells had fallen on Russian territory. Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, was quoted by Interfax Ukraine as saying that Ukrainian forces “do not fire on the territory of a neighboring country. They do not fire on residential areas.” He placed blame for the attack on the rebels.