Putin accuses Ukraine of ‘provocation’ amid alleged border incursion

Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine of launching “another major provocation” after defence officials said about 300 Ukrainian troops crossed into Russia’s Kursk region on Tuesday.

Fighting was reported to be continuing in the area, while Moscow said troops backed by 11 tanks and more than 20 armoured fighting vehicles had crossed the border near the town of Sudzha, 10 kilometres (six miles) from the front line.

Officials said thousands of people had been displaced from their homes in the area. Ukraine has yet to comment on the Russian accusations.

In remarks ahead of a Security Council meeting in Moscow, Putin accused Ukrainian forces of “indiscriminately firing” at civilian buildings and homes.

Clashes reportedly broke out in various villages across Russian territory throughout Tuesday, followed by Ukrainian airstrikes that killed three civilians and continued into the night, according to Russian authorities.

Moscow said 24 people, including six children, were injured in Ukrainian shelling of the border area.

Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed on Wednesday that it had prevented Ukrainian armed forces from advancing “deep into Russian territory” in the Kursk region, and said it had destroyed several Ukrainian drones overnight.

However, a number of weather alerts continued to be issued in Kursk, with local authorities urging residents to limit their movements and all public events cancelled.

Footage posted online – and verified by the BBC – showed fighter jets flying low over the area on Tuesday, with smoke rising from areas on the ground.

The region’s acting governor, Alexei Smirnov, said he had briefed Russian President Vladimir Putin on the situation, which he said was under control.

Smirnov also said that several thousand people had left areas in the region that had been attacked, adding that doctors from Moscow and St. Petersburg were on their way to provide assistance.

Kyiv has not yet commented on any of the reports regarding the events in Kursk.

Ukrainian army Colonel Vladislav Seleznyov told the prominent Nexta channel that the attack was “preventive” as an estimated 75,000 Russian troops continued to mass near the border.

After a major cross-border incursion by Russia into the northeastern Kharkiv region in May, there were fears that Moscow would try to do the same in the Sumy region to the north.

With Ukraine now in control of many settlements and highways in the other direction, these ambitions may have been thwarted for now.

But with Ukrainian forces exhausted and outnumbered, some military analysts are questioning the wisdom of such cross-border raids.

This is not the first incursion into Russia by fighters based in Ukraine. Some Russian anti-Kremlin groups launched raids last year, but security forces repelled them.

The forces crossed again into the Belgorod and Kursk regions in March, where they clashed with Russian security forces.