Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry on Friday initiated a federal-level emergency response in the southwestern Kursk region as clashes between Russian and Ukrainian forces continued for a fourth day following Kyiv’s surprise incursion earlier this week.

The Russian government classifies a federal emergency as a man-made or natural disaster resulting in more than 500 casualties or damages exceeding 1.2 billion rubles ($13.6 million). Independent media reports last placed the death toll in the Kursk region at six, while Russia’s Health Ministry said 66 people were injured including nine children.

Ukrainian troops stormed the Kursk region’s Sudzhansky district early Tuesday, advancing deeper into Russian territory over the preceding days despite claims from Russian authorities that they were successfully repelling the attack.

On Friday, Russia’s Defense Ministry said it continued to fend off the Ukrainian incursion, claiming to have killed 280 Ukrainian troops and destroyed 27 armored vehicles over the past 24 hours.

“Units of the North group of forces, along with incoming reserve troops, army aviation strikes and artillery fire, foiled the enemy’s attempts to advance deeper into Russian territory in the Kursk area,” the ministry said.news‘

Overall, the Russian military claims that it has killed 925 Ukrainian troops and destroyed more than 100 armored vehicles since the incursion began on Tuesday. Earlier, officials said up to 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been deployed in the Kursk region.

The defense ministry did not provide figures for Russian casualties or equipment losses. 

Pro-war military bloggers, meanwhile, published an unverified video of what they said was a Russian military convoy that was destroyed after coming under a Ukrainian fire in the Rylsky district northwest of the town of Sudzha, which has borne the brunt of the fighting. 

Acting Kursk region Governor Alexei Smirnov acknowledged that “the situation remains difficult.”

Earlier, authorities said mobile internet service would be made free for residents in those parts of the Kursk region that clashes between Ukrainian and Russian forces have impacted. Scores of people have evacuated areas near the border in recent days.

(C)THE MOSCOW TIMES 2024