Russian officials say they are fighting off Ukrainian incursion for second day

Russian officials said they are fighting off Ukrainian cross-border raids in a south-western border province for a second day, as Kyiv officials remained quiet about the scope of the operation.

Russian President Vladimir Putin described the incursion into the south-western Kursk region as a “large-scale provocation” and said he will hold a meeting with top defence and security officials to discuss the situation.

“The Kyiv regime has undertaken another large-scale provocation and launched indiscriminate shelling of civilian buildings, residential houses, ambulances with different types of weapons,” Mr Putin said at a meeting with cabinet officials.

He instructed the cabinet to coordinate assistance to the Kursk region.

The head of the region urged residents to donate blood due to the intense fighting.

Alexei Smirnov, Kursk’s acting governor, said on Telegram that blood banks were stocking up because of the fighting.

He wrote: “In the last 24 hours, our region has been heroically resisting attacks” by Ukrainian fighters, adding that all emergency services were on high alert.

If confirmed, the alleged cross-border foray could draw Russian reserves to the area, weakening Moscow’s offensive operations in several parts of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region where Russian forces have increased attacks to make the most of the summer fighting season.

But it could risk stretching outmanned Ukrainian troops further along the front line, which is more than 620 miles long.

The Russian defence ministry said up to 300 Ukrainian troops, supported by 11 tanks and more than 20 armoured combat vehicles, had crossed into Russia.

It said on Wednesday that military and border guard troops “continued to destroy Ukrainian military units in the areas alongside the border in the Kursk region.”

The ministry said Russian forces backed by artillery and warplanes “didn’t allow the enemy to advance deeper into the territory of the Russian Federation”.

There was no independent evidence that Ukrainian troops were involved in the assault, and Kyiv officials declined to comment.

The US-based Institute for the Study of War could not verify whether geolocated footage of damaged and abandoned armoured vehicles north of the border west of Lyubimovka, in the Kursk region, were Ukrainian.

The think tank also cast doubt on footage shared by Russian military bloggers claiming to show the aftermath of the Ukrainian raids.

Most of the damage shown “appears to be the result of routine Ukrainian shelling and does not indicate that there was ground activity in the area”, it said in its daily report.

Responsibility for previous incursions, into Russia’s Belgorod and Bryansk regions, have been claimed by two murky groups: the Russian Volunteer Corps and the Freedom of Russia Legion.

Disinformation and propaganda have played a central role in the war, now in its third year.

Some Russian war bloggers who have proved knowledgeable about the war said that Ukrainian soldiers were in Kursk.

Rybar, a Telegram channel ran by Mikhail Zvinchuk, a retired Russian defence ministry press officer, said that Ukrainian troops had seized three settlements in the region and continued to fight their way deeper into it.

Another pro-Kremlin military blog, Two Majors, claimed that Ukrainian troops had advanced up to 10 miles into the region.

Neither of the claims could be independently verified.

Russian forces have swiftly repelled previous cross-border incursions, but not before they caused damage and embarrassed authorities.

The Kursk region’s border with Ukraine is 150 miles long, making it possible for saboteur groups to launch swift incursions and capture some ground before Russia deploys reinforcements.

Published: 07/08/2024 by Radio NewsHub