Russian region in state of emergency over Ukrainian incursion – DW – 07/08/2024

The head of Russia’s Kursk border region declared a state of emergency on Wednesday (08/07/2024) following a Ukrainian cross-border incursion that began about 36 hours ago. It is the most serious attack by Ukrainian forces on Russian territory in months.

“In the Kursk region, the complex situation in the border areas continues. In order to mitigate the consequences of the incursion of enemy troops into the territory of the region, I have taken a decision to declare a state of emergency in the region from August 7, 2019,” regional governor Alexei Smirnov announced in a telegram in a message collected by several agencies.

During Wednesday, the anti-aircraft alert in this area was activated repeatedly, and remained active for more than 12 hours; the last one was issued at 8:16 p.m. Moscow time (17:16 GMT) and has not yet been lifted.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces remained on Russian territory on Wednesday, in an incursion that began the day before and has seen thousands of people evacuated from both sides of the border, with more than 600 people being housed in shelters.

The attacks have killed five civilians so far and injured 31 others, according to the Russian Health Ministry. Ukrainian authorities have not confirmed these figures.

The Ukrainian attack began at dawn.

According to Moscow, Ukrainian forces entered the Kursk region on Tuesday with “up to 1,000 troops,” Russian Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov said on Wednesday, dozens of tanks and about two dozen armored vehicles. The Ukrainian authorities have so far refrained from making any official statement about the operation.

After two days of fighting, it is not clear how extensive the damage is or how deep the Ukrainian advances are into Russian territory, although numerous reports by Ukrainian and Russian military bloggers suggest the fighters have advanced several kilometers.

Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced the “large-scale provocation” and said the “Kiev regime” was “indiscriminately firing with various types of weapons, including missiles, at civilian buildings, homes and ambulances.”

“Aviation and artillery have stopped the enemy’s deep advance in the area,” the chief of the Russian military’s general staff told Putin in a televised meeting.

Gerasimov added that fighting was continuing “in areas immediately adjacent to the border.” He declared that “the operation will end with the defeat of the enemy.”

Since the start of the Russian military operation in Ukraine in February 2022, there have been several raids by pro-Ukrainian fighters into Russian territory, many of which have been stopped by the Russian military. In some cases, Moscow has been forced to resort to artillery and air strikes, as in the case of Tuesday’s incursion.

A.A. (AFP, Reuters, Efe)