Vladimir Putin is desperately sending troops to the Russian border, fearing that Ukrainian forces could seize or disable a key nuclear power plant in a large-scale invasion.
Moscow said it had sent reserves to repel hundreds of Ukrainian fighters, backed by tanks, in a ground assault that would be one of the largest on Russian soil during the war.
On Tuesday, the Russian military and security services were caught off guard by a breach at the border of the Kursk region, which was guarded by lightly armed conscripts. Several of them were captured.
Kursk region governor Alexei Smirnov said “several thousand” people had been evacuated from the border region and all mass gatherings had been cancelled.
Heavy fighting is expected today as Ukrainian forces — possibly both the army and anti-Putin Russian partisans — push deeper into the region.
Damage in the town of Sudzha on August 6 after Ukrainian shelling, according to Smirnov
There were a flood of warnings today that Ukraine may be planning a daring takeover or encirclement of the Kursk nuclear power plant.
Ukraine launched the invasion across the Russian border around 5 a.m. GMT on Tuesday
According to official Russian social media, some 300 Ukrainian fighters, backed by tanks, attacked border troops in two towns in Kursk: Nikolayevo-Daryino and Oleshnya.
Moscow lost two Ka-52 helicopters. One was probably shot down by an FPV drone and was filmed burning. Moscow, which bombs Ukrainian citizens and territory daily, is furious about a “terrorist attack”.
According to the local governor, the region was hit by waves of drone attacks overnight, destroying at least five defense systems.
Five people were killed and 28 injured. The surprise attack reportedly forced Russian authorities to evacuate several border settlements.
There were a flood of warnings today that Ukraine may be attempting to seize or surround the Kursk nuclear power plant with an unprecedented attack on Russian territory.
Such a bold plan could then serve as a bargaining chip in negotiations with Putin over ceding control of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, which has been in Russia’s hands since the beginning of the war.
According to reports, video footage shows Kurchatov being shelled at night. Kurchatov is a city around the Kursk nuclear power plant. This city is about 50 kilometers in a straight line, but further by road, from the Ukrainian border invasion.
“Nuclear blackmail,” wrote Dmitry Rogozin, a senator who previously served as Putin’s deputy prime minister and head of the Russian space agency.
“This is something that all the media in the world will absolutely trumpet about. That’s what they (the Ukrainians) are counting on.”
He demanded a ruthless response to exterminate all Ukrainians crossing the border.
Smoke rises over the Kursk border region as Russia claims Ukraine carried out attack
War correspondent Yuri Kotenok wrote: ‘The Kurchatov nuclear power plant is an object that has long been the object of desire of the Ukrainian military elite and its curators.’
Despite the warnings, the acting governor of the region in southwestern Russia continued to insist in messages on the Telegram messaging app that the situation was “manageable.”
Ukraine has deployed multiple waves of drones over the past 24 hours, triggering at least a dozen airstrike warnings, Alexei Smirnov said in the messages.
Five people were killed, including two ambulance workers, and at least 20 were injured, including six children, in the fighting that broke out on Tuesday, Russian officials said.
Ukraine made no official comment, despite evidence of military action on its side of the border. Both Kiev and Moscow say their strikes do not target civilians.
The Ukrainian military regularly fires artillery and rockets into Russian territory and has attacked targets deep inside Russia with long-range attack drones. Infantry attacks, however, are rare.
The breakthrough in Russia exposed how Putin had lied to his people by not sending conscripts to the war zone and border areas.
Damage to buildings believed to have been caused during a Ukrainian attack across the border on Tuesday
Social media footage shows a burning truck after crossing the border in the Kursk region on Tuesday
Video footage shows several Russian conscripts after they were arrested at border crossings.
One of them, Danil Kolesnikov, 22 years old, a soldier, served in regiment 488 and was detained for guarding the border near Sudzha.
“I was captured by Ukrainian troops at the border crossing,” he said, indicating that he – like others – had been abandoned by their commanders.
Asked by his Ukrainian captors about his feelings about Putin and his war, the conscript said: ‘Well, of course… war is always a ****ed up ******* thing. It’s always bad.
‘Especially in my own region of Belgorod… so many corpses, all that shit… it is not supported.’
Another Maxim Emelyanin, 21, from the distant Komi Republic in Russia’s far north, said the conscripts had demanded to be removed from the border post, in line with Putin’s promise on the use of conscripts.
Social media images show damage to a residential building in the region
But they were left there. Asked if they were abandoned, he said, “That’s how it goes.”
He was asked, “What do you think of your superiors?” He replied, “Negative.”
“What do you think about the war in Ukraine?”, to which he replied: “I have a negative attitude towards the war.
“And Putin?” they asked. “Putin? I don’t know.”
He said he was “not exactly” supportive of his president’s actions, adding: “I had always avoided the military (but was eventually called up).”
Another theory is that Ukraine wants to disrupt Russian gas exports through the Kursk region.
According to reports, Ukraine had occupied the settlements of Daryevka, Gogolevka and Sverdlikovo.
A badly damaged building in the region, which borders Ukraine, after Tuesday’s raid
Photos shared yesterday after the border breach show damage to buildings
The border town of Sudzha was badly hit and most of its residents were evacuated.
According to Izvestia, the administrative and residential buildings and the infectious diseases department of the city hospital were damaged.
Earlier, forces describing themselves as volunteer paramilitaries fighting on the Ukrainian side caused minimal damage in a major raid this year on parts of Belgorod and the Kursk region. The purpose of the raids remains unclear, however.
The Ukrainian General Staff made no mention of a Ukrainian offensive operation in Russia on Tuesday.
During the more than two-year war, Ukraine’s efforts have been focused on fighting Russian forces, which control nearly a fifth of the country’s territory and have gradually gained ground over the past six months.
Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory consisted mainly of shelling of border areas and drone attacks on targets such as oil refineries and fuel depots.
