Russia says clashes continue amid alleged Ukrainian incursions into Kursk region

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) - Russia said on Thursday that clashes continued in two districts of the Kursk region, where Moscow claims it has been fighting incursions by Ukrainian troops since Tuesday.

A statement by the Russian Defense Ministry claimed that its forces, together with the country’s Federal Security Service, continued to take out “armed formations of the Ukrainian Armed Forces” in Kursk’s Sudzhansky and Korenevsky districts.

Both districts lie adjacent to Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region, where the statement said airstrikes are being carried out on Ukrainian reservists.

The statement claimed that over the past 24 hours, the country’s military, through airstrikes and artillery fire, and together with Russian border guards, has prevented Ukrainian forces from advancing.

The statement further claimed that Ukraine lost 660 servicemen and 82 armored vehicles, including eight tanks, 12 armored personnel carriers, six infantry fighting vehicles, and 55 armored combat vehicles, since the start of clashes in the region.

On Tuesday, Russia claimed that Ukrainian troops, including tanks and armored combat vehicles, attacked its military positions near two border settlements in the Kursk region.

Since then, Moscow has reported that it has been repelling incursions into the border region by Ukrainian forces, in addition to countering air strikes launched at Kursk and surrounding regions.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday accused Kyiv of “large-scale provocation” and “indiscriminate shooting,” while Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov claimed that approximately 1,000 Ukrainian troops crossed the border into the Kursk region.

The country has also announced that it strengthened security at the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of the region’s administrative capital and around 60 km (37 mi) north of the town of Sudzha, the latter of which is about 10 km (6.2 mi) from the Ukrainian border.

Kursk Governor Alexey Smirnov announced later in the day that a state of emergency has been introduced in the region.

Elsewhere, Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said on X that "any escalation, shelling, military actions, forced evacuations, and destruction," including those within Russia itself, are caused by the country’s “unequivocal aggression.”

Meanwhile, Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksii Honcharenko also commented on the situation in Kursk on Telegram, saying that a "foreign army" is carrying out a "military operation" in Russia for the first time since World War II.

A day later, Honcharenko claimed that Ukrainian troops took control of the Sudzha gas transmission hub, Europe's sole transmission route for Russian natural gas supplies, marking the first time a Ukrainian official confirmed an incursion into Russian territory.

Independent verification of Russia and Ukraine's claims is difficult due to the ongoing war.