Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, accused Ukrainian troops of crossing the border into the Kursk region, marking the possible first incursion of its kind by Ukraine in Russia since the start of the war.
It said that 300 soldiers, 11 tanks, and 20 combat vehicles from the Ukrainian 22nd Mechanized Brigade were involved in the attack.
Nineteen people, including four children, were hospitalized, and “telemedicine consultations were held with specialists from federal medical organizations,” the ministry’s statement said.
The Epoch Times could not immediately verify Russia’s claims. Ukrainian authorities have not publicly responded to Russia’s statements.
Meanwhile, the extent of the attack, including whether Ukrainian forces were able to hold positions inside Russia, was not clear. Also unclear is if Ukraine’s military, a paramilitary group, or another fighting force carried out the attack.
On Wednesday, state news agency RIA Novosti reported that Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov said that the “advance of the Ukrainian Armed Forces deep into Russian territory has been stopped.”
“In the last 24 hours, our region has been heroically resisting attacks” by Ukrainian troops, Smirnov wrote on Telegram, adding that all emergency services were on high alert. Smirnov said authorities had evacuated more than 200 people from areas under shelling, while several thousand others left in their own vehicles.
“In order to eliminate the consequences of enemy forces entering the region, a decision was made to introduce a state of emergency from August 7,” the post said, according to a translation.
The Russian Defense Ministry said in a later Telegram post that it mobilized Ka-52 helicopters to the region to carry out strikes against Ukrainian military equipment and troops near the Kursk border.
If confirmed, the cross-border foray would be among Ukraine’s largest since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, and unprecedented for its deployment of Ukrainian military units.
“Russian milbloggers posted footage claiming to show the aftermath of the supposed Ukrainian raids, although most of the damage shown in the footage appears to be the result of routine Ukrainian shelling and does not indicate that there was ground activity in the area,” the Institute wrote.
It added that the Russian military bloggers have “largely dismissed the supposed Ukrainian raids into Kursk Oblast, and Ukrainian officials have largely yet to comment on the raids.”
