Russia declared a state of emergency following an ongoing incursion believed to have been launched by Ukraine – despite Moscow officials claiming the attack had been “stopped”.
The Kursk region, which borders Ukraine, suffered an incursion by troops on Tuesday. The region’s governor, Alexei Smirnov, first spoke about the event by taking to the messaging platform Telegram and denouncing “attempted border breakthroughs” in two districts of Kursk.
He later claimed Ukrainians had attacked Russian border force units deployed in two settlements, Nikolayevo-Daryino and Oleshnya.
Also on Tuesday, the troops carrying out the incursion captured Russian soldiers in the midst of their assault, according to a video circulating on social media.
On Wednesday, the same day Russia’s Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov said around 1,000 Ukrainian troops had assaulted the town of Sudzha, Smirnov declared a state of emergency.
He said: “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 August 7.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin also spoke about the incursion, describing it as a “major provocation”.
The assault on the Sudzha area could deal a particularly heavy blow to the Kremlin, as the town is home to a gas hub and is the last major transit point in the country for Russian pipelines heading into Europe.
Ukraine hasn’t officially taken responsibility for the incursion, although some of its politicians have hinted at it in recent remarks.
Without mentioning the Kursk attacks, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday: “The more pressure we put on Russia … the closer we will get to peace. A just peace through just force.”
Ukrainian MP Oleksiy Goncharenko seemingly confirmed Kyiv was carrying out the assault, as he wrote on Telegram late August 7 that the Ukrainian army had established control over the Sudzha gas hub.
In the early hours of August 8, Goncharenko added: “Kursk region. Day three. Everything is according to plan. For the first time since World War II, a foreign army is conducting a combined arms operation on the territory of Russia and taking control of settlements.”
Smirnov’s decision to declare a state of emergency does not appear to have blocked the incursion – which Gerasimov had claimed on Wednesday had already been “stopped”.
While the town of Sudzha is around eight kilometres into the Kursk region, reports from Thursday suggested Ukrainian troops had been spotted as far as the Ivnitsa village, around 24 kilometres inside Russia.