This photo released by the acting Governor of Kursk region Alexei Smirnov telegram channel , shows a damaged house after shelling by the Ukrainian side in the city of Sudzha, Kursk region that borders Ukraine, Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024.
Governor of Kursk region telegram channel via AP
A state of emergency has been declared in Kursk after Russian authorities said Ukraine launched a rare incursion into the Russian border region.
Acting regional Governor Alexey Smirnov said the “operational situation” in the border area of Kursk remained “complicated” on Wednesday, a day after Russia said Ukrainian units launched an incursion into the region.
“In order to eliminate the consequences of enemy forces entering the region, I have decided to declare a state of emergency,” Smirnov said in a Google-translated update on Telegram, adding that drone and missile attacks had continued overnight.
Russia’s defense ministry said Tuesday that 300 Ukrainian troops had crossed over the border with tanks and armored vehicles, entering the country near the town of Sudzha, around 400 miles southwest of Moscow. Kursk lies across the border from Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday accused Ukraine of carrying out “yet another large-scale provocation” at the Russian border, amid ongoing fighting between Ukrainian units and Russian forces sent to defend the area.
Russia’s defense ministry claimed Wednesday that its forces were “destroying armed formations” using air and missile strikes, along with artillery.
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Valery Gerasimov, the chief of Russia’s general staff, later told Putin that Russian forces had halted an offensive undertaken by 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers — a troop estimate far higher than the original figure supplied by the country’s defense ministry.
“The enemy’s advance deep into territory in the Kursk direction was stopped by the actions of the units covering the state border together with border guards and reinforcement units, with air strikes, missile and artillery fire,” Gerasimov said in televised comments reported by Reuters.
In this pool photograph distributed by Russian state owned Sputnik agency, 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 on August 7, 2024.
Gavriil Grigorov | Afp | Getty Images
The Ukrainian authorities have not made any public comment on the incursion. CNBC has requested further information from the Ukrainian defense ministry.
U.S. State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters on Wednesday that the U.S. had not been forewarned of a Ukrainian incursion, but did not appear to rule out that an offensive took place.
“We did not [ know in advance about the Kursk operation]. But it’s not unusual for the Ukrainians not to notify us of their exact tactics before they execute them. It’s a war that they’re conducting.