Ukrainian incursion into Russia forces evacuation of thousands

Photo: Telegram account of the governor of the Kursk region via Agence France-Presse The governor of the Kursk region published on his Telegram account this photo of a house destroyed by strikes attributed to the Ukrainian army in the city of Sudja.

Agence France-Presse in Moscow

Published at 8:56

• Europe

The Russian army reported on Wednesday that fighting was “continuing” in the Kursk region, which borders Ukraine, where Ukrainian troops have been incursing since the day before and has been targeted by strikes that have killed at least five civilians.

According to Moscow, Ukrainian forces entered the Russian region on Tuesday with nearly 300 soldiers, a dozen tanks and twenty armored vehicles. kyiv, for its part, has remained largely silent on the operation.

President Vladimir Putin denounced a “large-scale provocation,” accusing Ukrainian forces of “firing indiscriminately with different types of weapons, including rockets, at civilian buildings, homes and ambulances.”

He is due to meet with security and military officials later in the day, ordering local authorities to “provide necessary assistance” to the population.

The Russian Defense Ministry said that “the operation to destroy Ukrainian army formations is continuing,” more than 24 hours after the incursion began.

It said clashes continued “throughout the night” in areas “immediately adjacent to the border.”

The ministry said on Telegram that Russian troops “prevented the enemy from advancing deep into Russian territory,” seemingly acknowledging that Ukrainian troops had gained ground during their incursion.

According to the Telegram channel Rybar, followed by more than a million people and close to the Russian army, Ukrainian troops have seized three villages in the Kursk region.

A source within the Ukrainian security services (SBU) claimed responsibility to AFP for the destruction in flight by a small drone of a Russian Mi-28 helicopter, which would be a “first in the history of war”.

Thousands evacuated

Several thousand people have evacuated the area due to the fighting and shelling, which has left at least five civilians dead and 28 injured, local authorities said, specifying that all public events have been cancelled.

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According to the Russian Ministry of Health, 13 people including three children have been hospitalised in the region following the Ukrainian shelling.

In this context, the acting governor Alexei Smirnov called on the population to donate blood to replenish the stocks of medical institutions.

The Ukrainian authorities have been observing almost total silence on the situation in the Kursk region since Tuesday. Several senior Ukrainian officials interviewed by AFP declined to comment.

A Ukrainian military expert, Serguiy Zgurets, said the Ukrainian army appeared to be trying to divert Russian forces from other sectors of the front, where they have been pushing for several months.

“I think one of (Kiev's) goals is to withdraw (Russian) reserves, to simplify the actions of our military in the Kharkiv sector and perhaps in other regions,” he told AFP.

The geography of this area in Russia makes it possible to “effectively carry out this type of dissuasive action against the enemy with a reduced force and this is what the Ukrainian army is probably doing,” added Mr. Zgourets.

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Drone attacks

Ukrainian drone attacks also targeted apartment buildings in two other regions on Wednesday borders with Ukraine, those of Voronezh and Belgorod, have informed their respective authorities.

“Two drones attacked a building” in Chebekino, in the Belgorod region, breaking the windows of one apartment and causing a fire in another, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote on Telegram, according to whom “no one was injured “.

In Voronezh, the capital of the region of the same name, debris from two drones shot down by anti-aircraft defense damaged the facade of a building and broken the windows of several apartments in another, explained its governor Alexandre Gusev.

Several incursions into Russia by fighters from Ukraine have taken place since the start of the conflict in February 2022.

The Russian army each time claimed to have repelled them but some of them led it to resort to artillery and aviation, as is the case for Tuesday.

The operation comes at a time when Russian troops have been gradually gaining ground in eastern Ukraine for months, facing a Ukrainian army lacking new recruits and ammunition.

Russian troops also launched a ground offensive in May in the border region of Kharkiv, seizing several towns before being stopped by Ukrainian forces.