Russia has begun to thwart a week-long Ukrainian incursion into its Kursk region, Moscow has claimed.
Russian army units – including fresh reserves, aircraft, drone teams and artillery forces – have stopped Ukrainian troops from gaining further territory near the settlements of Obshchy Kolodez, Snagost, Kauchuk and Alexeyevsky, the Russian defence ministry said.
The influx of fresh units has been confirmed, at least to some extent, after Lithuania’s defence minister Laurynas Kasciunas revealed Russia is moving troops from its Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad to Kursk.
Ukraine, however, insisted it is continuing to advance.
Kyiv now controls 74 settlements in Kursk, and has taken a further 15 square miles of territory in 24 hours, Ukrainian military commander Oleksandr Syrskyi said.
“Fights are ongoing along the entire front line,” Mr Syrskyi said in a video posted on President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Telegram channel on Tuesday.
“The situation, despite the high intensity of combat, is under control.”
According to foreign ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi, Ukraine is “not interested” in holding territory in Kursk long term.
The aim of the cross-border operation is to protect Ukrainian land from long-range strikes launched from the region, he added.
“We want to protect the lives of our people,” Mr Tykhyi was quoted as saying by local media.
He claimed Russia had launched more than 2,000 strikes from Kursk in recent months, using anti-aircraft missiles, artillery, mortars, drones, 255 glide bombs and more than 100 missiles.
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Truck carries blindfolded men in Russian uniform
Despite Ukraine’s incursion being the largest attack on Russia since the Second World War, the United States said it had “nothing to do with this”.
White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One: “We have no involvement. We’ll continue to have conversations with the Ukrainians about their approach, but it is really for them to speak to.”
Vladimir Putin has vowed to hit back at Ukraine with a “worthy response” – and has accused Kyiv’s “Western masters” of helping Ukraine.
A “generous” peace offer made by Russia to Ukraine in June is “no longer on the table”, said Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia’s deputy envoy to the UN.
“This is a step that Ukraine will later regret,” he added.
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President Biden said the incursion was “creating a real dilemma” for the Russian president.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the operation had shown Ukraine was “capable of protecting its interests and independence”.
His country needs to act as “unitedly and effectively as it was in the first weeks and months of the war” when Ukraine “seized the initiative” and “began to turn the situation around”, he said in his evening address.
“Now we have done the same: we once again proved that in any situation, we, Ukrainians, are capable of achieving our goals – capable of protecting our interests and our independence,” a translation of his post on Telegram read.