MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian forces thwarted a Ukrainian attempt to penetrate the border on Tuesday but the situation remained "difficult" and two civilians were killed, the regional governor said.
Alexei Smirnov, acting head of Russia's southern Kursk region, said that soldiers and Federal Security Service (FSB) border forces had repelled a Ukrainian attack.
Russian media quoted the FSB as saying that Russian forces had dealt with an armed "provocation" by Ukraine. There was no comment from Ukraine.
The MASH Telegram channel, which has contacts in Russian state security, said that about 100 Ukrainian fighters had tried to enter Russia in the Sudzha area of the Kursk region.
Smirnov wrote on Telegram that villages had been subjected to "massive shelling" from Ukraine. He said a female civilian had been killed in Sudzha and a man driving a minibus near the village of Nekhaevka died on the spot when it was struck by a drone. Across the region, 13 people were wounded, he said.
"The situation in the border area remains difficult, but our defenders are successfully working to destroy the enemy," Smirnov said. Reuters could not independently verify the reports of shooting and casualties.
Russian regions near the Ukrainian border - especially Belgorod, which is adjacent to Kursk, 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.
The governor of Belgorod said on Tuesday that one civilian had been killed in a Ukrainian drone strike on a village.
(Reporting by Reuters; writing by Mark Trevelyan; editing by Mark Heinrich)
Most Popular
Comments / 0