Putin accuses Kyiv of ‘major provocation’ with cross-border attack

Kremlin says 300 Ukrainian troops fired indiscriminately at civilian buildings in Kursk region

Russia's President Vladimir Putin. Picture: Valery Sharifulin/Pool/AFP

President Putin has accused Kyiv of launching a “major provocation”, claiming that hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers, supported by tanks and armoured vehicles, have staged a cross-border attack into the Kursk region.

Speaking before a meeting of his security council in Moscow yesterday (Wednesday), the Russian president accused Ukrainian forces of “firing indiscriminately” at civilian buildings and residences during what could be one of the largest incursions onto Russian soil in more than two years of war.

Valery Gerasimov, Russia’s chief of general staff, told the meeting that a force of some 1,000 Ukrainian troops launched a surprise attack across the border on Tuesday morning. One hundred had been killed and 215 injured, he said.

Heavy fighting continued into yesterday (Wednesday), with Kyiv’s forces taking control of a number of villages. There were reports that Ukraine had shot down a helicopter and destroyed several armoured vehicles.

Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Valery Gerasimov is seen on a screen as he remotely joins a meeting with heads of law enforcement agencies to address the situation in the Kursk region. Picture: Gavriil Grigorov/Pool/AFP

Russia’s ministry of defence had initially claimed on Tuesday that Ukrainian forces were pushed back to the border by air strikes and artillery fire, but revised that yesterday (Wednesday) as Putin convened his security chiefs.

In the town of Sudzha, six miles inside the Russian border, Ukrainian troops took hold of a gas transit station on one of the few remaining pipelines supplying Russian gas to Europe. Images posted by military bloggers showed the town lying in ruins. A local Orthodox priest said Ukrainian shelling had set ablaze the cathedral and surrounding buildings, although no one was hurt.

The raid presents the first major test for Andrei Belousov, who replaced Sergei Shoigu as defence minister in May, with Russian military bloggers quick to air their criticism.

Russian Defence Minister Andrei Belousov. Picture: Vadim Savitsky / Russian Defence Ministry / AFP

“The enemy has been accumulating forces for two months,” said the influential Rybar channel, which has links to the Russian army. “For two months the full information was sent to the useless headquarters. There was enough time to make an appropriate decision.”

Ukraine has hit targets deep inside Russia with long-range attack drones but infantry raids are a rarity.

Since last summer, armed groups of Russian exiled fighters, who operate in close co-ordination with Ukraine’s military, have staged several incursions into the Kursk and Belgorod regions.

This week’s attack, however, appears to have been of a much larger scale and involved the Ukrainian army proper. Russia said it was led by Kyiv’s 22nd mechanised brigade.

The purpose of the raids is unclear though it may be a tactic designed to draw Russian resources away from other parts of the front as Ukraine struggles to contain enemy advances around the city of Pokrovsk, in the Donetsk region.

Alexei Smirnov, the acting governor of Kursk, said five people were killed, including two members of an ambulance crew, and at least 20 were wounded. He posted a video telling residents: “I ask you to remain calm and not to be subject to the enemy’s information provocations. The situation is controllable.”

Ukraine continued aerial attacks on Wednesday but has not officially commented on the strikes. Picture: Russian Defence Ministry / AFP

Damages in the town of Sudzha on August 6, caused by shelling from Ukranian forces in Russia's Kursk Region. Picture: Governor of Kursk Region / AFP

Images posted by military bloggers appeared to show extensive damage caused by the raid, including a downed Russian helicopter and a destroyed convoy of trailers loaded with tanks. Other footage purported to show about half a dozen captured Russian soldiers being escorted down a road by Ukrainian forces.

Air-defence systems destroyed four drones overnight, Russian officials said, adding that reserves had been deployed from other regions to boost defences.

Ukraine made no official comment. However, Andriy Kovalenko, an official on the national security and defence council, appeared to obliquely acknowledge the attack and respond to Russia’s claims that it had a handle on the situation. “Russian soldiers are lying about the controllability of the situation in the Kursk region,” he said on Telegram. “Russia does not control the border.”

The Times