A state of emergency has been declared in the Russian border region of Kursk as troops continue to battle an alleged Ukrainian incursion, a media report said on Thursday.
The troops fighting in the region were supported by 11 tanks and 20 armoured vehicles, the BBC reported.
President Vladimir Putin has accused Ukraine of a “major provocation” following the incursion into Kursk, the report said.
“To eliminate the consequences of enemy forces coming into the region, I took the decision to introduce a state of emergency in the region from 7 August,” said Kursk’s acting Governor Alexei Smirnov on Wednesday evening.
Thousands of people were evacuated from border areas and doctors were being drafted in from other cities, Smirnov added.
In a video conference, Russia’s Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov told Putin that “a unit of Ukraine’s armed forces numbering up to 1,000 people went on the offensive” in the region on Tuesday morning.
He said Ukrainian forces aimed to take over the area around the town of Sudzha, and that Russia had already killed 100 men and injured another 215.
In Moscow, the Defence Ministry said on social media “the enemy’s movement further into Russian territory has been prevented” but that “the operation for the destruction of Ukrainian army units is continuing.”
On Wednesday evening, Ukrainian MP Oleksiy Honcharenko said the Ukrainian army had established control over the Sudzha gas hub, a major facility involved in the transit of natural gas from Russia to the EU via Ukraine.
kk/mud
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