Russia foils Ukrainian attacks

Says Ukrainian sabotage group retreats after attempt to attack border

MOSCOW:

The Russian defence ministry said on Tuesday a Ukrainian “sabotage group” that tried to attack Russia’s Kursk region has retreated in defeat. Russia earlier accused Ukraine of mounting an attack on its southern border and said it had moved in reserves to help repel hundreds of fighters backed by tanks.

“After suffering losses, the Ukrainian sabotage group retreated to its territory, while some of the fighters tried to gain a foothold directly on the territory adjacent to the state border, where they were blocked by Russian army units,” Moscow’s defence ministry said in a statement.

“After suffering significant losses, the remnants of the sabotage group retreated to Ukrainian territory.” It said Russia used artillery fire, warplanes and drones to beat back the attack.

Ukraine’s general staff, in a regular update on Tuesday, reported Russian strikes on border villages but did not mention any Ukrainian offensive operation at the border.

Russian regions near the border have come under frequent Ukrainian shelling in the course of the war in Ukraine , as well as occasional incursions by groups of anti-Kremlin Russian volunteers who are fighting on Ukraine’s side.

Moscow said that up to 300 Ukrainian fighters, backed by tanks, had taken part in the reported attack on Tuesday against Russian border units in Nikolayevo-Daryino and Oleshnya, two settlements in Russia’s Kursk region.

Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield accounts. Ukraine’s main military effort is focused on pushing back Russian military forces who control nearly a fifth of its territory after almost two-and-a-half years of war, and have made a series of gradual gains in the past six months.