Russia scrambles to defend its territory as Ukrainian incursion continues
After hundreds of Ukrainian troops spilled across the border, Russia is struggling to repel the incursion as ITV correspondent Geraint Vincent reports
The Kremlin has declared a 'federal-level' emergency in the Kursk region, around 500 kilometres southwest of Moscow, following a large-scale incursion from Ukraine earlier this week.
Russia sent reinforcements there on Friday, four days after hundreds of Ukrainian troops poured across the border in what appeared to be Kyiv’s biggest attack on Russian soil since the war began.
The Russian Defence Ministry said that fighting was continuing in the Kursk region and that the army has conducted airstrikes against Ukrainian forces, including using a thermobaric bomb that both causes a blast wave and creates a vacuum that suffocates its targets.
Russia declares federal-level emergencies when there are more than 500 victims or damage exceeds 500 million rubles (£4.5 million).
Russia has also put the neighbouring areas of Belgorod and Bryansk on alert.
Meanwhile, a Russian plane-launched missile slammed into a Ukrainian shopping mall on Friday, killing at least 14 people and wounding 44 others, authorities said.
The mall in Kostiantynivka, in the eastern Donetsk region, is located in the town’s residential area. Thick black smoke rose above it after the strike.
“This is another targeted attack on a crowded place, another act of terror by the Russians,” Donetsk regional head Vadym Filashkin said in a Telegram post.
It was the second major strike on the town in almost a year. Last September, a Russian missile hit an outdoor market there, killing 17.
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Russia's defence ministry said it is deploying multiple rocket launchers, towed artillery guns, tanks transported on trailers and heavy tracked vehicles to counter Ukraine's raid.
“The operational situation in the Kursk region remains difficult,” Kursk acting governor Alexei Smirnov said on Telegram.
Russia's defence ministry also reported fighting in the western outskirts of Sudzha, around 10 kilometres from the border. The town has an important pipeline transit hub for Russian natural gas.
Social services and civic associations are providing assistance to people forced to flee their homes by the fighting, he said. The latest Russian figure for evacuations in Kursk was 3,000.
Little reliable information about the surprise Ukrainian operation has emerged, and its strategic aims are unclear.
A top adviser to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday that border region attacks will cause Russia to “start to realize that the war is slowly creeping inside of Russian territory.”
Ukrainian officials have refused to comment specifically about the incursion.
Asked about Ukraine’s incursion, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said the United States was “in touch with our Ukrainian counterparts,” but that he wouldn’t comment until “those conversations are complete.”
He said the US had not changed its policy approach to Ukraine.
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