President Vladimir Putin has accused Ukraine of launching “one other main provocation”, after defence officers mentioned Ukrainian troops crossed into Russia’s Kursk area on Tuesday.
Moscow mentioned troops, supported by 11 tanks and greater than 20 armoured fight automobiles, crossed the border close to the city of Sudzha, 10km (six miles) from the frontline.
In televised remarks broadcast on Wednesday afternoon, Russia’s Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov advised President Putin that the “advance” into Kursk area had been stopped with Russian forces “persevering with to destroy the adversary in areas instantly adjoining to the Russian-Ukrainian border”.
Mr Gerasimov additionally mentioned that as much as 1,000 Ukrainian troops had entered the area with the goal of taking on the realm across the city of Sudzha, and that Russian forces had already killed 100 males and injured one other 215.
Ukraine has but to touch upon the Russian allegations.
Thousands of native residents have left their properties within the area, officers mentioned.
Speaking forward of a gathering of the Security Council in Moscow, Mr Putin accused Ukrainian forces of “firing indiscriminately” at civilian buildings and residences.
Fighting reportedly happened in numerous villages on Russian territory all through Tuesday. It was adopted by Ukrainian air assaults which killed three civilians and continued into the night time, Russian authorities mentioned.
Twenty-four individuals, together with six kids, have been wounded in Ukrainian shelling of the border area, Moscow mentioned.
On Wednesday, Russia’s Ministry of Defence claimed it prevented the Ukrainian Armed Forces from advancing “deep into Russian territory” within the Kursk area and mentioned it had destroyed a number of Ukrainian drones in a single day.
However, a quantity of air alerts continued to be issued in Kursk, the place native authorities urged residents to restrict their actions and all public occasions have been cancelled.
Footage posted on-line – and verified by the BBC – confirmed fighter jets flying low overhead within the area on Tuesday, with smoke rising from areas on the bottom.
The appearing regional governor, Alexei Smirnov, mentioned he had briefed Russian President Vladimir Putin concerning the state of affairs, which he mentioned was below management.
Mr Smirnov additionally mentioned a number of thousand individuals had left areas of the area that have been below assault and added medical doctors from Moscow and St Petersburg have been on their option to provide help.
Kyiv has not but commented on any of the reviews about occasions in Kursk.
One colonel in Ukraine’s navy, Vladislav Seleznyov, advised the outstanding Nexta channel the assault was “preventative” with an estimated 75,000 Russian troops persevering with to collect near the border.
After a significant cross-border incursion by Russia into the north-eastern Kharkiv area in May, there had been fears Moscow would try the identical into the Sumy area additional north.
With Ukraine now apparently capturing a number of settlements and highways the opposite manner, these ambitions could nicely have been annoyed, for now.
But with Ukrainian forces already overstretched and outmanned, some navy analysts are questioning the knowledge of such cross-border raids.
This is not the primary incursion into Russia by fighters primarily based in Ukraine. Some teams of anti-Kremlin Russians launched raids final yr, which have been repelled.
The forces crossed into the Belgorod and Kursk areas once more in March, the place they engaged in clashes with Russian safety forces.
