Russian and Ukrainian forces are clashing in Russia’s Kursk region for a third consecutive day, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Thursday.
Russia described it as one of the largest cross-border incursions by Ukrainian forces during the war that started 2½ years ago with Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine along its eastern border with Russia.
But a Defense Ministry statement said the Russian military and border guards have blocked Ukrainian forces from advancing deeper into the Kursk region in southwest Russia. It said the army is attacking Ukrainian combatants who are trying to advance from Ukraine's Sumy region.
"Attempts by individual units to break through deep into the territory in the Kursk direction are being suppressed," the ministry said.
The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank that has closely monitored the Russia-Ukraine war, said that as of Wednesday, Ukrainian troops had advanced as much as 10 kilometers (6 miles) into Russian territory, although the assessment has not been confirmed.
Ukrainian officials have not publicly commented on the fighting in the Kursk region around the town of Sudzha.
The Ukrainian operation, however, did get some approval from Washington.
The incursion into Russia’s Kursk region "is consistent with our policy," said Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh, while briefing reporters Thursday.
Singh said the U.S. still does not support Ukraine launching “long-range attacks into Russia,” but she noted that Ukrainian forces in Kursk "are taking actions to protect themselves from attacks that are coming from a region that are within the U.S. policy of where they can operate our weapons, our systems, our capabilities.”
“As they see attacks coming across the border, they have to be able to have the capabilities to respond, and so you're seeing some of these cross-border counterfire measures," she said.
The Kursk region's acting deputy governor, Andrei Belostotsky, told the state news agency RIA-Novosti, “The enemy has not advanced a single meter. On the contrary, it is retreating. The enemy's equipment and combat forces are being actively destroyed. We hope that in the near future ... the enemy will be stopped."
Russia’s Defense Ministry said it destroyed Ukrainian aerial drones over the Kursk and Oryol regions.
Alexei Smirnov, the acting governor of Kursk, said Thursday on Telegram that Russian air defenses also shot down several Ukrainian missiles overnight.
Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram that Ukrainian drone attacks in two districts damaged an infrastructure facility and a house.
Meanwhile, in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, Russian shelling killed at least four people on Thursday, regional Governor Vadym Filashkin said.
Ukraine’s military said Thursday it shot down two Russian guided missiles and four aerial drones.
The drone intercepts took place over the Kherson, Kirovohrad and Odesa regions, Ukraine’s air force said.
Kirovohrad Governor Andriy Raykovych said on Telegram there was no reported damage from the attacks in his region.
Kherson Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said that in addition to one drone being shot down over the region, Russian forces also shelled Kherson, setting a residential building on fire and damaging several others.
In Dnipropetrovsk, Governor Serhiy Lysak said on Telegram that Russian forces targeted the Nikopol area with drones and artillery, damaging several houses.
In an interview that was published Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s chief of staff said that a second Kyiv-led peace summit should not be treated as the beginning of negotiations with Russia.
VOA National Security Correspondent Jeff Seldin contributed to this report. Some information for this story was provided by Reuters and The Associated Press.
