Putin accuses Ukraine of ‘provocation’ amid alleged border incursions

President Vladimir Putin has accused Ukraine of “another major conflict”, after defense officials said around 300 Ukrainian soldiers crossed into Russia’s Kursk region on Tuesday.

Fighting is reportedly continuing in the area, as Moscow said troops backed by 11 tanks and more than 20 armored vehicles crossed the border near the town of Sudzha, 10km (six kilometers) from the front.

Thousands of people have left their homes in the region, officials said. Ukraine has not commented on Russia’s allegations.

Speaking before a Security Council meeting in Moscow, Mr Putin accused Ukrainian forces of “indiscriminate firing” on buildings and residential areas.

It is reported that fighting took place in different villages in Russian territory throughout Tuesday. It was followed by a Ukrainian airstrike that killed three people and continued into the night, Russian authorities said.

Twenty-four people, including six children, were injured in bombings in Ukraine’s border region, Moscow said.

On Wednesday, Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had prevented the Ukrainian Army from advancing “deep into Russian territory” in the Kursk region and said it had destroyed several Ukrainian drones overnight.

However, dozens of air warnings continued to be issued in Kursk, where local authorities urged residents to limit their movements and all public events were cancelled.

Pictures posted online – and confirmed by the BBC – show warplanes flying over the area on Tuesday, billowing smoke from low-lying areas.

The acting governor of the region, Alexei Smirnov, said that he had informed Russian President Vladimir Putin about the situation, which he said was under control.

Mr. Smirnov also said that several thousand people have left the areas of the region that were under attack and added that doctors from Moscow and St. Petersburg are on their way to help.

Kyiv has not commented on any reports about the events in Kursk.

One of Ukraine’s military colonels, Vladislav Seleznyov, told the popular Nexta channel that the attack had “stopped” as an estimated 75,000 Russian troops continued to mass near the border.

After a major Russian offensive on the border north-east of Kharkiv in May, there were fears that Moscow would try the same in the Sumy region in the north.

With Ukraine now apparently seizing many settlements and highways otherwise, those ambitions may have been frustrated, for now.

But with Ukraine’s armed forces already stretched and strengthened, some military analysts question the wisdom of this cross-border offensive.

This is not the first time Ukraine-based fighters have infiltrated Russia. Some Russian anti-Kremlin groups launched attacks last year, which were repelled.

Troops also crossed into Belgorod and Kursk regions in March, where they clashed with Russian troops.