ADDS REMARKS BY RUSSIAN CHIEF OF GENERAL STAFF VALERY GERASIMOV
By Burc Eruygur
ISTANBUL (AA) - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday accused Kyiv of “large-scale provocation” and “indiscriminate shooting” in the Kursk region, where Moscow claims it has been fighting incursions by Ukrainian troops since Tuesday.
“The Kyiv regime has undertaken another large-scale provocation, conducting indiscriminate shooting from various types of weapons, including missiles, at civilian buildings, residential buildings, ambulances,” Putin said at a government meeting in Moscow.
Putin announced that he has directed civilian agencies to provide necessary assistance to residents of the region.
The president said at a meeting with the heads of law enforcement agencies and top military officials on the situation in Kursk on Wednesday evening that Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov is personally overseeing the situation on the border at one of the operational centers deployed there.
In his report to Putin and other meeting participants, including Secretary of the Russian Security Council Sergey Shoygu and Defense Minister Andrey Belousov, Gerasimov said approximately 1,000 Ukrainian troops crossed the border and launched an offensive aimed at capturing a section of Russian territory in the Sudzhansky district of the Kursk region.
According to Gerasimov, ground and air forces collaborated in tandem to prevent Ukrainian forces from advancing deep into Russian territory.
"Currently, the units of the Sever (North) group, together with the border authorities of the Federal Security Service of Russia, continue to destroy the opponent in areas directly adjacent to the Russian-Ukrainian border," he noted.
Gerasimov claimed that Ukrainian forces have suffered significant losses, vowing that the operation would be completed "by defeating the opponent" and regaining control of the state border.
In a separate statement, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the incursion has a nefarious aim of causing "panic" among the local population.
Zakharova went on to accuse the West of "cynical silence," calling on the international community to condemn Ukraine's "criminal actions."
Russia on Tuesday claimed that up to 300 Ukrainian troops, including 11 tanks and more than 20 armored combat vehicles, attacked its military positions near two border settlements adjacent to Ukraine's Sumy region.
At least five people have died since the start of the clashes in the region, according to statements by the Kursk’s acting governor, Alexey Smirnov.
Meanwhile, Alexey Kuznetsov, the deputy head of the Health Ministry, said 24 people, including six children, were injured in Ukrainian shelling.
Ukrainian authorities have not yet commented on Russia’s claims, and independent verification is difficult due to the ongoing war.