Kursk Oblast Deputy Governor Andrei Belostocki said today that Russian forces are fighting to prevent Ukrainians from advancing further in the region where Ukrainian forces made a significant incursion this week.
"The enemy has not advanced a meter, on the contrary, it is retreating. Enemy equipment and combat forces are being actively destroyed. We hope that in the near future the enemy will be stopped," Belostocki said, the state news agency RIA-Novosti reported.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday described the incursion as a "big provocation".
Ukrainian officials did not comment on the scope of the operation. If confirmed, this would be perhaps the largest Ukrainian attack since Russia launched the war in February 2022.
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Putin met with his top defense and security officials to discuss what he said was the "indiscriminate shelling of civilian buildings, residential houses, ambulances with different types of weapons." He instructed the Cabinet to coordinate aid to the Kursk region.
Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov told Putin in a meeting via video link that about 100 Ukrainian soldiers were killed in the battle and that more than 200 were wounded.
In the meantime, at least two people, a paramedic and an ambulance driver, were killed in Ukrainian shelling, and another 24 were wounded, said the spokeswoman of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova.
It was not possible to independently verify the Russian claims.
White House spokesman for national security, John Kirby, refused to comment on the operation and said that the administration of the President of the United States of America (USA) Joseph Biden contacted the Ukrainian side to better understand what happened.
The Kursk region's border with Ukraine is 245 kilometers long, which allows sabotage groups to launch quick incursions and seize part of the terrain before Russia quickly deploys its reinforcements.
Kiev's goal could be to draw Russian reserves into the area, potentially weakening Moscow's offensive operations in several parts of Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, where Russian forces have stepped up attacks and are gradually advancing.
The operation could boost the morale of Ukrainian soldiers at a time when Kiev forces face relentless Russian attacks and are expected to face more in the coming weeks.
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