Kursk fighting continues after Ukraine's cross-border incursions into Russia

A top official in the Kursk region of Russia that borders Ukraine said Thursday that fighting is continuing in an area where Ukrainian forces made a significant incursion this week.

Ukrainian officials haven't commented on the scope of the operation around the town of Sudzha. But Kursk's acting deputy governor, Andrei Belostotsky, said that Russian forces are fighting to prevent Ukrainians from advancing further into the region.

"The enemy has not advanced a single meter, on the contrary, it is retreating. The enemy's equipment and combat forces are being actively destroyed. We hope that in the near future ... the enemy will be stopped," Belostotsky said, according to state news agency RIA-Novosti.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday described the incursion as a "large-scale provocation."

Putin met with his top defence and security officials to discuss what he called the "indiscriminate shelling of civilian buildings, residential houses, ambulances with different types of weapons." He instructed the Cabinet to coordinate assistance to the Kursk region. The fighting is about 500 kilometers (320 miles) from Moscow.

Army chief of staff Valery Gerasimov told Putin at the meeting via video link that about 100 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in the battle and more than 200 others were wounded, Russian news agencies reported.

The Ukrainian shelling, meanwhile, killed at least two people, a paramedic and an ambulance driver, and wounded 24 others, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said in a statement Wednesday.

It wasn't possible to independently verify the Russian claims. Disinformation and propaganda have played a central role in the war, now in its third year. John Kirby, the White House's national security spokesman, declined to comment on the operation and said the Biden administration has reached out to the Ukrainians to better understand what happened.

If confirmed, the cross-border foray would be among Ukraine's largest since Russia launched its full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022 and unprecedented for its deployment of Ukrainian military units.

Kyiv's aim could be to draw Russian reserves to the area, potentially weakening Moscow's offensive operations in several parts of Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, where Russian forces have increased attacks and are advancing gradually toward operationally significant gains.

However, it could risk stretching outmanned Ukrainian troops further along the more than 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line.

Even if Russia were to commit reserves to stabilise the new front, given its vast manpower and the relatively small number of Ukrainian forces engaged in the operation, it would likely have little long-term impact.

However, the operation could boost Ukrainian morale at a time when Kyiv's forces are facing relentless Russian attacks and are expected to face more in the coming weeks.

Several Ukrainian brigades stationed along the border region said they couldn't comment, and Ukraine's Defence Ministry and General Staff also said they wouldn't comment.

Russian forces have swiftly repelled previous cross-border incursions, but not before they caused damage and embarrassed authorities.

Responsibility for previous incursions into Russia's Belgorod and Bryansk regions has been claimed by two murky groups: the Russian Volunteer Corps and the Freedom of Russia Legion, which are made up of Russian citizens and have fought alongside Ukrainian forces.

Some Russian war bloggers who have proved knowledgeable about the war said that Ukrainian soldiers were in Kursk.

Rybar, a Telegram channel run by Mikhail Zvinchuk, a retired Russian Defense Ministry press officer, said that Ukrainian troops had seized three settlements in the region and continued to fight their way deeper in.

It also said that Ukrainian forces captured the Sudzha gas transit station, about 8 kilometres (5 miles) from the border. Russian officials haven't confirmed the gains.

Another pro-Kremlin military blog, Two Majors, claimed that Ukrainian troops had advanced up to 15 kilometres (9 miles) into the region.

Neither claim could be independently verified.

The Kursk region's border with Ukraine is 245 kilometres (150 miles) long, making it possible for saboteur groups to launch swift incursions and capture some ground before Russia deploys reinforcements.