Ukraine's surprise incursion into Russia's Kursk region prompted Russian President Vladimir Putin to convene a meeting with his top defense and law enforcement officials, the Guardian reported.
A message from one of the Russian military bloggers claims that Ukrainian forces have advanced north, possibly up to 15 km from the border, along a highway north of the border village of Sverdlikovo and near a major gas transmission hub, but this cannot be independently confirmed.
Official and unofficial Russian sources say that on Tuesday morning a force of several hundred Ukrainian soldiers crossed a lightly defended part of the border in what appears to be one of the largest incursions into Russia since the war began in February 2022. The Russian Ministry of the defense said yesterday that the attack had been neutralized.
The ministry had said Russian forces had repelled the incursion since Tuesday, but acknowledged at midday yesterday that fighting was continuing. The agency said that Russian forces resorted to air and missile strikes and artillery fire against the attackers, who caused 260 casualties and lost 50 armored vehicles.
In televised remarks at the start of a meeting with members of the Russian government, Putin condemned the attack as a large-scale provocation. He later met with senior Russian military officials. Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov reported to Putin that Russian forces were fighting Ukrainian forces near the border and would push them back.
The acting governor of the Kursk region, Aleksei Smirnov, announced that he had declared a state of emergency in the border region, although it was not clear what measures this included. Several thousand civilians were evacuated from the frontline areas, and 300 people were accommodated in temporary housing for the night.
Authorities in Ukraine's northeastern Sumy Oblast, just across the border with Kursk Oblast, also announced they were evacuating around 6,000 people.
Ukrainian officials remained silent during the incursion, possibly fearing to give away too much information about their intentions, the newspaper said.
Russia said the attack began around 8:00 a.m. on Tuesday, when Ukrainian troops crossed the border between the villages of Nikolayevo-Darino and Oleshnya with the apparent intention of moving north and east.
The attack is most likely an attempt by Ukraine, whose defenses are stretched on the eastern front in the Donbass, to divert some of the Russian forces to defend a part of the front line that has largely remained inactive since early 2022, notes "Guardian".
Critics in Ukraine, however, argue that such attacks have no long-term military objective. In March, pro-Kiev Russian fighters launched attacks from Ukraine in the Belgorod and Kursk regions, but were repulsed without achieving strategic gains, the British publication recalls.
For now, information is scarce, but this time the operation appears to be an attack by the Ukrainian military, not Russian opposition groups. Russia said it was led by Kiev's 22nd Mechanized Brigade.
The main fighting took place in and around the town of Suja, less than 10 km from the border. Local Russian channel in "Telegram" posted a short video showing stricken rural houses, which he said demonstrated "today's situation".
The main operational gas pipeline to Europe runs near Suja, where a measuring station monitors reduced Russian gas supplies to countries such as Austria and Hungary. Ukraine has allowed gas to continue flowing through the pipeline as part of a contract that expires at the end of 2024.
Other speculation on social media suggests that the target of the invasion may have been the Kursk nuclear power plant, but the facility is located 56 km from the border and its capture by a force numbering several hundred or thousands of people is unlikely.
A state of emergency was introduced in Russia's Kursk region, says a headline in "Mond".
The declaration of a state of emergency in Russia's Kursk region was announced by the acting governor of this territory bordering Ukraine, which has been facing a serious invasion by the Ukrainian army since Tuesday.
"The operational situation in the border areas remains difficult. In order to liquidate the consequences of the entry of enemy forces, I decided to declare a state of emergency," Governor Alexei Smirnov wrote in "Telegram".
The White House said today that it plans to contact Kiev to find out more about the purpose of Ukrainian troops entering Russian territory in the border Kursk region. "We will be contacting the Ukrainian military to find out more about their goals," White House spokeswoman Karin Jean-Pierre told reporters in response to a question about the operation, which has led to the evacuation of thousands of civilians on both sides of the border.
Several influential Russian military analyst blogs criticized the country's military command yesterday for failing to counter the Ukrainian incursion that began Tuesday in Russia's Kursk region, which borders Ukraine. "Telegram" The "Ribar" channel, which has more than one million subscribers and is considered close to Russian forces, said the enemy had been building up forces for the attack for two months.
"For two months, all the complete information was passed on to the useless headquarters. There was enough time to make an appropriate decision," adds "Ribar", quoted by France Press.
According to the same source, the Russian military command did not learn a lesson from the attempted invasion in March of last year in the Belgorod region neighboring Kursk.
"Several conscripts were taken prisoner yesterday,", reported "Ribar". In Russia, young conscripts who opt out of military service and are a sensitive topic for society are officially not allowed to take part in military operations and are withdrawn to the rear, the French publication points out.
Tuesday's incursion into Kursk Oblast prompted the Russian military to deploy reserves and use drones, aircraft and artillery to try to repel Ukrainian forces.
In the words of military blogger Anastasia Kashevarova, the Russian military command "continues to make mistakes and lie", "mistakes that cost the lives of our soldiers", she wrote on her Telegram channel. Russian military bloggers supporting the invasion of Ukraine have in the past strongly condemned the army command, although they are now holding back due to fears of reprisals, notes Monde.