MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia's defence ministry said on Tuesday that Ukraine had launched an attack into Russia's southern Kursk region, but Moscow's forces had responded and the region's acting governor described the situation on the border as "controllable".
Russian reports earlier noted the incursion and said it had moved in reserves to help repel hundreds of fighters backed by tanks. The regional governor said three people were killed.
"The enemy today launched another attempt to break into the territory of Russia's Kursk region," the latest Defence Ministry statement said. "Artillery fire, army aviation strikes and drone strikes are being inflicted on the enemy."
The ministry appeared to have deleted an earlier account of the attack in which it said a "Ukrainian sabotage group" had suffered heavy losses and retreated into Ukrainian territory.
Kursk regional governor Alexei Smirnov, writing on Telegram late in the evening, said Ukrainian forces had shelled a border area, injuring two children. Local officials said the border town of Sudzha had also come under attack.
Smirnov also posted a video on Telegram telling residents: "I ask you to remain calm and not to be subject to the enemy's information provocations. The situation is controllable."
Ukraine's military authorities in Sumy region -- on the other side of the border from Russia's Kursk region -- said Ukrainian forces had destroyed a Russian ballistic missile, two drones and a helicopter in the region.
Unofficial Ukrainian military blogs showed pictures of what they described as the destroyed helicopter and other equipment.
Ukraine's general staff, in a regular update, reported Russian strikes on border villages but made no mention of any Ukrainian offensive operation at the border.
Reuters was unable to verify battlefield accounts from either side.
FREQUENT UKRAINIAN ATTACKS
Russian regions near the border have come under frequent Ukrainian shelling in the course of the war in Ukraine, as well as occasional incursions by groups of anti-Kremlin Russian volunteers who are fighting on Ukraine's side.
Moscow said that up to 300 Ukrainian fighters, backed by tanks, had taken part in the reported attack on Tuesday against Russian border units in Nikolayevo-Daryino and Oleshnya, two settlements in Russia's Kursk region.
Ukraine's main military effort is focused on pushing back Russian military forces who control nearly a fifth of its territory after almost 2-1/2 years of war, and have made a series of gradual gains in the past six months.
In earlier accounts of the fighting, regional governor Smirnov said Russian soldiers and FSB forces had repelled a Ukrainian attack but described the situation at the border as "difficult".
In a series of updates on social media, Smirnov said three Russian civilians had been killed, one by shelling and two by drones. At least 20 people were wounded.
Russian media quoted the FSB as saying that Russian forces had dealt with an armed "provocation" by Ukraine.
Ukrainian strikes inside Russia's own territory have mostly involved shelling of border regions and drone attacks on targets such as oil refineries and fuel depots.
A Russian missile attack on the city of Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine killed at least one person, injured 12 others and damaged a medical clinic, according to Ukrainian officials.
(Reporting by Reuters in Moscow with additional reporting by Yuliia Dysa in Gdansk; writing by Mark Trevelyan; editing by Gareth Jones, Mark Heinrich, Ron Popeski and Jonathan Oatis)
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