Russia has evacuated parts of a second region next to Ukraine after Kyiv sharply increased military activity near the border just days after its biggest incursion into sovereign Russian territory since the start of the 2022 war.
Ukrainian forces rammed through the Russian border early last Tuesday and swept across some western parts of Russia’s Kursk region, in a surprise attack that may be aimed at gaining leverage in possible ceasefire talks after the US election.
Apparently caught by surprise, Russia had stabilised the front in the Kursk region, though Ukraine had carved out a sliver of Russian territory where battles are continuing, according to Russian war bloggers.
In the neighbouring Belgorod region to the south, the regional governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said evacuations had begun from the Krasnaya Yaruga District due to “enemy activity on the border” that was a “threat”.
“I am sure that our servicemen will do everything to cope with the threat that has arisen,” Mr Gladkov said.
“We are starting to move people who live in the Krasnaya Yaruga district to safer places,” he added.
Russia has imposed a sweeping security regime in the Kursk, Bryansk and Belgorod regions while Russian ally Belarus said it was bolstering its troop numbers at its border after Minsk said Ukraine had violated its airspace with drones.
The audacious Ukrainian attacks on Russian sovereign territory are aimed at showing its western supporters that Ukraine can still muster major military operations while trying to gain a bargaining chip ahead of possible ceasefire talks.
Russian forces, which have a vast numerical supremacy and control 18% of Ukrainian territory, have been advancing this year along the 1,000km front after the failure of Ukraine’s 2023 counter-offensive to make any major gains.
Ukraine broke its silence on the attacks on Saturday when President Volodymyr Zelensky said they had launched an incursion into Russian territory to “restore justice” and pressure Russian forces.
Russia destroyed five drones over Belgorod overnight, 11 over Kursk and two over Voronezh, according to Russia’s defence ministry which said it was repelling Ukrainian attacks inside Russia. It listed considerable heavy weaponry including tanks which it said it had destroyed.
The Ukrainian attack has prompted some in Moscow to question why Ukraine was able to pierce the Kursk region so easily after more than two years of the most intense land war in Europe since World War II.
Russian war bloggers said Ukrainian forces in Kursk were trying to encircle Sudzha, where Russian natural gas flows into Ukraine, while major battles were under way near Korenevo, about 22km from the border.
Russia said a missile attack on Kursk over the weekend had injured 13 people.
Though the United States said it had not been told of the Ukrainian operation before it was unleashed, there were signs in Moscow that the attack would provoke a response from Russia.
“We have no doubt that the organisers and perpetrators of these crimes, including their foreign curators, will bear responsibility for them,” said Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry.
“A tough response from the Russian Armed Forces will not take long.”
At the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, in a part of Ukraine controlled by Russian forces, a major fire broke out.
“These reckless attacks endanger nuclear safety at the plant and increase the risk of a nuclear accident. They must stop now,” International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi warned in a statement, without attributing blame for the attack.
The Russian operator of the plant said Ukraine had caused the fire with a military strike but that the reactors were in cold shutdown.
President Zelensky accused Russia of lighting the fire.
In a later statement, the IAEA said it had requested that its team get “immediate access to the cooling tower to assess the damage”.