Ukraine’s surprise incursion into Russia’s Kursk region continued for a second day, prompting Vladimir Putin to hold a meeting with his top security and law enforcement officials.
A report from A Russian military blogger Ukrainian forces may have advanced north, perhaps nine miles (15 km) from the border along a highway north of the border village of Sverdlikovo, but this could not be verified.
Official and unofficial Russian sources said several hundred soldiers crossed a lightly defended part of the border area on Tuesday morning. Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Wednesday that the attack had been neutralized.
It said Russian forces had repelled the attack on Tuesday, but acknowledged fighting was ongoing at lunchtime on Wednesday. It said they used air and missile strikes and artillery fire against the invaders, killing 260 people and destroying 50 armored vehicles.
In televised remarks at the start of a meeting with members of the Russian government, Putin described the raid as a major provocation and said he would discuss it with top security officials later that day.
Several Russian bloggers said Putin would hold a meeting of the Russian Security Council at 1pm Moscow time (1100 BST) in response to the latest military developments, but there was no official confirmation.
Alexei Smirnov, the acting governor of the Kursk region, said he had briefed Putin on the operational situation. Civilians were evacuated from frontline areas and 300 people were accommodated overnight in temporary shelters.
Ukrainian officials have remained quiet as the infiltration has developed, perhaps anxious not to appear victorious or to give away too much information about Kiev’s intentions.
Russia said the attack began around 8 a.m. Tuesday when Ukrainian troops crossed the border between the villages of Nikolayevo-Tarino and Oleshnya with the apparent intention of moving north and east.
The attack is likely to be an attempt by Ukraine, whose defenses on the eastern Donbass front have been extended, to divert some Russian forces to protect part of a front that has been largely inactive since early 2022.
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Critics in Ukraine, however, argue that such attacks serve no long-term military purpose. Anti-Kremlin Russian groups launched attacks from Ukraine into the Belgorod and Kursk regions in March, but were repulsed without making any strategic gains.
Information is scarce, but this time the operation appears to be an attack by Ukraine’s military rather than anti-Russian groups. Russia said it was led by Kyiv’s 22nd Mechanized Brigade.
Fighting was going on in and around the town of Sudja, about 6 miles from the border. A local Russian Telegram channel posted a short video showing bombed-out rural houses, saying it demonstrated “today’s situation”.
The main operational gas pipeline to Europe runs near Sudzha, where a metering station monitors reduced Russian supplies to countries such as Austria and Hungary. Ukraine has allowed gas to continue flowing through the pipeline as part of a deal that expires at the end of 2024.
Other online speculation suggests the target of the incursion could be the Kursk nuclear power plant, but the facility is 35 miles from the border and could have a capacity of several hundred or even a thousand troops.
Russia is building up troops in Ukraine. Its force in the country is estimated at around 520,000, two to three times larger than the original invasion. Ukraine, meanwhile, is finding it challenging to mobilize new recruits and is pushing back in parts of the eastern region, particularly in the central Donbass towards Pokrovsk.
Additional reporting by Pjotr Sauer
