Russian forces thwarted an attempt at another cross-border incursion by Ukraine into southwestern Russia, a local official reported on Sunday, months after Kyiv staged a bold assault on its nuclear-armed enemy that Moscow is still struggling to halt.
An “armed group” sought on Sunday to breach the border between Ukraine and Russia’s Bryansk region, its governor Aleksandr Bogomaz said, but was beaten back. Bogomaz did not clarify whether Ukrainian soldiers carried out the alleged attack, but claimed on Sunday evening that the situation was “stable and under control” by the Russian military.
In Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson, Russian shelling killed three civilians on Sunday, local Governor Oleksandr Prokudin claimed. Another Kherson resident died in a blaze sparked by shells hitting a high-rise, according to Ukraine’s Emergency Service.
Air raid sirens wailed for over three hours in Kyiv overnight into Sunday, and city authorities later reported that “around 10” drones had been shot down. They said no one had been hurt. Ukraine’s air force on Sunday reported that it had shot down 41 drones launched by Russia across Ukrainian territory.
There was no immediate acknowledgement or response from Ukrainian officials.
Tankers from the 33rd separate mechanised brigade of the Ukrainian Ground Forces fire with a Leopard 2A4 tank at an undisclosed location in Ukraine on Sunday. Photo: AFP
The region neighbours Kursk province, where Ukraine launched a surprise push on August 6 that rattled the Kremlin and constituted the largest attack on Russia since World War 2. Hundreds of Russian prisoners were blindfolded and ferried away in trucks in the opening moments of the lightning advance, and Ukraine’s battle-hardened units swiftly pressed on across hundreds of square miles of territory.