Putin urgently sends troops to frame to repel Ukrainian assault

Russia has desperately sent troops to its border after hundreds of Ukrainian troops, tanks and armoured vehicles tried to break across the border into its Kursk region.

Moscow‘s defence ministry said it has rushed troops and aviation units to the southwestern region after Ukrainian units tried to attack Russian positions just inside the border.

‘Border defence troops, together with military units of the FSB border force, are repelling attacks and inflicting fire damage on the enemy,’ the defence ministry said in a statement Tuesday.

Russia claims Ukraine launched the foray early this morning with as many as 300 troops, 11 tanks and more than 20 armoured combat vehicles, claiming to have struck back with airstrikes.

Ukraine launched the incursion across the Russian border around 5am GMT

Damage in the town of Sudzha on August 6 following Ukrainian shelling, according to Smirnov

The Russian governor of the Kursk region said three people had been killed by Ukrainian forces throughout the day – a woman in the attempted border incursion and two people whose vehicles were hit in separate drone attacks.

‘The situation in the border area remains difficult, but our defenders are successfully working to destroy the enemy,’ Alexei Smirnov added.

Reports indicated there were dead and wounded on both sides. 

The defence ministry said the attack was focused on the settlements of Nikolaevo-Darino and Oleshnya – just across from Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region.

Ukraine did not comment on the reports but the head of the Sumy region military administration, Oleksiy Drozdenko, told residents to pay attention to air raid alerts.

Ukrainian forces said there was ‘cynical shelling’ of border settlements in the Sumy and neighbouring Chernigiv regions.

A source in the Ukrainian National Defence Council, Andrii Kovalenko, said: ‘Russian war correspondents are lying about the controllability of the situation in the Kursk region.

‘Russia does not control the border.’

Combatants from Ukraine have made several brief incursions into Russia since the beginning of the conflict, including with units of Russians fighting in support of Kyiv – the Russian Volunteer Corps and the Freedom of Russia Legion.

Russia has pushed back against the attacks and has sometimes needed to deploy artillery and aviation.