Russia announces fierce battles in Kursk to repel largest Ukrainian incursion

Russian forces continued to fight fierce battles against thousands of Ukrainian soldiers 20 kilometers deep inside the Kursk region after the largest attack launched by Ukraine, during which it penetrated Russian territory.

Ukrainian forces crossed the Russian border early Tuesday and stormed parts of western Russia's Kursk region, in a surprise attack that observers said was aimed at gaining leverage in potential ceasefire talks after the U.S. election.

According to Russian military bloggers, Ukrainian units, backed by drone squadrons and heavy artillery fire, quickly moved to seize a small part of Russia's western border territory, while "sabotage units" pushed deeper into Russian territory.

The Russian Defense Ministry said today that its forces "continue to repel an attempted invasion by the Ukrainian armed forces," adding that fierce fighting was centered around residential areas located between 10 and 20 kilometers from the Russian-Ukrainian border.

The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement today that tanks had arrived and "taken up firing positions" against Ukrainian forces. The ministry had earlier announced that it was also deploying additional artillery and several rocket launchers, as the fighting entered its fifth day.

In a sign of the gravity of the situation, Russia imposed a full-scale security regime in three border regions on Monday, while Belarus said it had repelled what it believed was a major drone attack from Ukraine. President Vladimir Putin called the Ukrainian attack a major provocation.

On Saturday, the Russian news agency TASS quoted the local Emergencies Ministry as saying that more than 76,000 people had been evacuated from areas bordering Ukraine in Russia's Kursk region.

Although Russian Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov said last Wednesday that the Ukrainian incursion had stopped, Russian forces have not yet succeeded in pushing Ukrainian forces back beyond the country's borders.

The Ukrainian offensive has led some in Moscow to question why Ukraine has been able to breach the Kursk region so easily after more than two years of waging the largest ground war in Europe, in terms of combatants, since World War II.

Source: Agencies