Ukrainian troops attempt incursion into Russia’s Kursk region

The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) attempted to make an incursion across the Ukrainian-Russian border into Russia’s Kursk region overnight, acting Kursk Governor Alexey Smirnov said on Tuesday, though he stressed that “fighters from the FSB border guards and the Russian Armed Forces prevented the border from being breached.”

Fighting with AFU troops on the border with Ukraine’s Sumy region has been going on since early Tuesday morning, the Russian Defence Ministry said in an update on Tuesday afternoon, adding that some 300 AFU troops travelling in a convoy of 11 tanks and more than 20 armoured vehicles had approached the Russian border.

Russia’s border guards and Air Force were launching strikes on Ukrainian military targets in Ukraine’s Sumy region, with reinforcements being deployed to the area, the ministry said.

A Ukrainian sabotage group of about 100 servicemen tried to enter the Kursk region overnight, according to Telegram channel Mash. It said that 20 “saboteurs” had been killed and another 50 had been wounded.

Citing a pro-war online forum covering the Kursk region, Telegram channel Astra reported that a small group of AFU soldiers had crossed the border “at a narrow section of the front line” and had advanced several hundred metres into Russian territory.

Five people, including three children, were also injured when the Kursk region town of Sudzha came under Ukrainian shelling overnight, badly damaging several residential buildings, according to Smirnov.

In total, 26 Ukrainian drones were shot down in the region, Smirnov said, adding that one had struck a car in the village of Glushkovo, injuring two people.

The AFU also shelled the Russian village of Yasnye Zori, in the southwestern Belgorod region overnight, killing one person and damaging a residential building, Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Tuesday.