The leader of Russia’s Kursk border district declared a state of emergency on Wednesday, citing a continued Ukrainian cross-border incursion that began 36 hours ago.
Since the incursion began, at least five civilians have been dead and 31 injured, six of them are children, Russian health officials said Wednesday.
Witnesses questioned on Russian media stated they fled border areas in cars while under drone fire.
“To eliminate the consequences of enemy forces coming into the region, I took the decision to introduce a state of emergency in the Kursk region from 7 August,” Governor Alexei Smirnov said in a post on Telegram.
After two days of fighting, the extent of the damage and the depth of the Ukrainian advance was unclear — though several reports from Ukrainian and Russian military bloggers suggested the fighters had gained several kilometres.
President Vladimir Putin said Ukraine had indiscriminately attacked civilian buildings and ambulances while Russia’s top general vowed to crush the incursion.
“The Kyiv regime has undertaken another large-scale provocation,” Putin said in a televised meeting with government officials.
US Wants To Know Ukraine’s Objectives
The White House said Wednesday it was contacting key US ally Ukraine to learn more about the “objectives” of Kyiv’s most serious cross-border incursion into Russian territory in months.
“We’re going to reach out to the Ukrainian military to learn more about their objectives,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters when asked about the operation.
Washington supported “common sense” actions by Ukraine to stop attacks by Russian forces, Jean-Pierre added.
President Joe Biden in May allowed Kyiv to use American-supplied weapons against targets just across the Russian border to repel Moscow’s push on the Kharkiv region.
But White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said separately that “nothing had changed” about the US policy discouraging broader strikes or attacks inside Russia.
Thousands of civilians on both sides of the border have been evacuated after Ukraine launched the cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, now in its second day.
US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller dismissed Moscow’s condemnations of the Ukrainian attack.
“I have seen the statements from the Russian government. It is a little bit rich, them calling it a provocation, given Russia violated Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty,” he told a briefing.
‘Not everyone can leave’
Authorities in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy area, close across the border from Kursk, said they were evacuating approximately 6,000 people.
Several thousand people were also evacuated from the Kursk region.
Some Russian military bloggers said that Ukrainian troops had reached the town of Sudzha, some eight kilometers (five miles) from the border, and were regularly bombarding it.
The Sudzha metering station, located in the small hamlet of roughly 5,000 inhabitants, is the last significant transit point for Russian pipeline gas flowing to Europe via Ukraine.
Evgeny Shestopalov, a priest in the town, stated in a video posted by Russian media that Sudzha was “on fire” and that citizens unable to leave were seeking refuge at his church.
A local Russian television station displayed footage from the city center, showing wrecked houses, rubble thrown over the street, and enormous craters in the ground caused by artillery strikes.
Russia’s National Guard said it was boosting defenses at the Kursk nuclear power plant, which is around 60 kilometers from the Ukrainian border.
Valery Gerasimov, the Chief of Russia’s General Staff, stated that up to 1,000 Ukrainian troops were involved in the offensive, and that Russian forces had prevented them from going deeper into the Kursk region.
“The operation will end with the enemy’s defeat and them being pushed back to the state border,” he told Putin in a televised meeting.
‘More pressure’
Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the incursion, the most serious cross-border attack in months.
President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday thanked Ukrainian troops for their “bravery” in an evening address published on social media.
“The more pressure we put on Russia… the closer we will get to peace. A just peace through just force,” he said, without making any specific reference to the fighting in Kursk.
A Ukrainian security source told AFP that Kyiv used a drone to strike a Russian helicopter over the Kursk region on Tuesday, but did not clearly link it to the incursion.
Ukrainian fighters have previously conducted brief excursions into Russia, some accompanied by Russian troops fighting in support of Kyiv, including the Russian Volunteer Corps and the Freedom of Russia Legion.
In May, Putin launched a huge new operation into northeast Ukraine, claiming that it would create a security buffer to safeguard Russian border territories.
That attack was centered on Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, which is southeast of the Sumy region, from whence Tuesday’s cross-border raid was launched.
However, strikes on Russian territory have continued, with Russia’s Belgorod district proclaiming more than a dozen settlements along the border no-go zones in response to bombardment in July.
Ukraine has frequently stated that assaults on military and energy infrastructure within Russian territory are a legitimate reaction to Moscow’s full-fledged military offensive.