Russia claimed on Wednesday that it was still fighting Ukrainian forces who had crossed into the border area of Kursk the day before, with the regional governor declaring a state of emergency and tightening security around a nearby nuclear power station.
Kursk's acting Governor Alexei Smirnov said on Wednesday evening: “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.”
In a video conference, Russia's Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov told President Vladimir Putin that "a unit of Ukraine's armed forces numbering up to 1,000 people went on the offensive" in the Kursk region on Tuesday morning.
The Russian Defence Ministry said on social media that "the enemy's movement further into Russian territory has been prevented" but that "the operation for the destruction of Ukrainian army units is continuing."
‘Large-Scale Provocation’
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 kilometres (320 miles) from Moscow.
The Ukrainian shelling, meanwhile, killed at least two people — a paramedic and an ambulance driver — and injured 24, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said in a statement.
The Kursk region's border with Ukraine is 245 km (150 miles) long, making it possible for saboteur groups to launch swift incursions and capture some ground before Russia deploys reinforcements. 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.
US: ‘No Violation’ Of Rules On Weapons
In Washington, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said the United States was seeking an understanding from Ukraine of the incursion, and said it had had no advance knowledge of it.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said U.S. rules on Ukrainian use of U.S. weapons - authorised in areas over the Russian border - remained in effect, but that Ukraine's actions were "not a violation of our policy."
The Russian ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, said on Telegram that U.S. statements on the Ukrainian action were "outrageous...not a word criticising their clients, not a regret about the victims of the tragedy".
(With AP, Reuters Inputs)
