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Kiev continued its airstrikes on Russia’s Kursk border region on Wednesday, with defenses destroying four drones overnight, the Russian Defense Ministry said, a day after Moscow accused Ukraine of launching an armored assault on the region.
Russia’s Defense Ministry on Tuesday sent in reserve troops to help repel hundreds of Ukrainian militants backed by Kursk tanks in one of the largest ground incursions into Russian territory during the war, now more than two years old.
Alexey Smirnov, acting governor of the southwestern Russian region, said in a post on the Telegram messaging app that the situation was “controllable.”
He said on Wednesday all emergency services were on “high alert” and called on people to donate blood to replenish medical supplies.
Smirnov’s post showed that the area had received more than a dozen air raid alerts in the past 24 hours. As of Wednesday morning, there were no new reports of ground fighting.
Russian officials said five people were killed, including two paramedics, and at least 20 were wounded, including six children, in the fighting that broke out on Tuesday.
Ukraine has made no official comment, despite evidence of some military action along its border. Both Kiev and Moscow say their strikes are not aimed at civilians.
Ukraine regularly fires artillery and missiles into Russian territory and uses long-range attack drones to strike targets deep inside the country, but infantry raids are rare.
This year, volunteer paramilitary forces claiming to be fighting on the Ukrainian side carried out a major incursion into parts of Belgorod and Kursk that caused little damage, but the purpose of the attacks remains unclear.
On Tuesday, Ukraine’s General Staff did not mention any offensive operations by Ukraine inside Russia.
Russia’s official social media account said that up to 300 Ukrainian militants, supported by tanks, attacked border guards in two Kursk regions (Nikolaevo-Darino and Oreshnya).
Reuters was unable to verify the battlefield descriptions from either side.
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