Thousands flee as Russia battles major cross-border incursion

Russia has been battling a major cross-border incursion from Ukraine for a second day, with authorities evacuating several thousand civilians due to fighting, officials said.

The incursion began on Tuesday morning, with the Russian defence ministry announcing it had deployed air and artillery firepower to try to quash Ukrainian troops breaking into the Kursk border region.

"The operation for the destruction of Ukrainian army units is continuing," the defence ministry said on social media on Wednesday.

"The enemy's movement further into Russian territory has been prevented," it added.

Kursk regional governor Alexei Smirnov said "several thousand" people had been evacuated from the region and all mass gatherings had been cancelled.

"Over the course of the last day, with our help, several thousand people left the shelling zone by personal transport," Smirnov said in a video message on Telegram.

But he added: "The situation in the region is under control".

Border attacks

Russian President Vladimir Putin has pledged to support the region "on all fronts", he said in the video.

Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the incursion, the most serious in months.

Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak alluded to the attacks, on social media, without specifically mentioning them.

Moscow had used its "border regions with impunity for massive air and artillery attacks", he said.

Five people have been killed and 24 wounded since the fighting began, 13 of whom have been hospitalised, according to Russian officials.

The defence ministry said there had been losses on the Ukrainian side of 260 soldiers and 50 armoured vehicles, including seven tanks and eight armoured personnel carriers.

The claim could not be independently verified.

Kursk sits just across from Ukraine's northeastern Sumy region and has been subjected to regular Ukrainian shelling attacks since the conflict began in February 2022.