Ukraine launches its biggest cross-border raid into Russia

Vladimir Putin calls emergency meeting as he says Ukrainian troops are ‘firing indiscriminately’

Vladimir Putin has told an emergency meeting of his national security council that Ukraine is conducting a “large-scale provocation” after its cross-border raid into Russia.
Hundreds of Ukrainian troops from Ukraine’s 22nd mechanised brigade supported by dozens of tanks and armoured vehicles were reported to have launched the attack into the frontier region of Kursk.
Russian sources claimed that Kyiv occupied 11 villages, creating an opening about 10 miles deep and six miles wide, after fighting continued overnight into Wednesday.
Unverified footage shot from a drone appeared to show the capture of dozens of Russian prisoners of war by Ukrainian forces during the raid.
“As you know, the Kyiv regime has undertaken another large-scale provocation,” Putin said in a televised meeting with government officials. “It is firing indiscriminately from various types of weapons, including rockets, at civilian buildings, residential houses and ambulances.”
Rybar, an authoritative Russian military blogger, said on Wednesday afternoon: “Throughout the night and morning, Ukrainian formations attempted to expand the part of Kursk Oblast under their control.”
The account, which has close to 1.2 million followers on the Telegram messaging app, had earlier described the cross-border raid as a “difficult situation” for the Russians.
It appeared to be Ukraine’s first coordinated large-scale offensive action after months of attempting to hold back Russian gains in the eastern Donetsk region.
Kyiv’s political and military leaders have neither confirmed nor denied details of the raid, in line with previous decisions to maintain secrecy around active operations.
Ukraine has previously helped stage attacks on Russia’s border regions of Kursk, Bryansk and Belgorod led by anti-Putin Russian citizens fighting alongside Kyiv.
But the latest incursion appeared to be one of the largest Ukrainian ground attacks on the Russian mainland since Putin ordered his full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Russian sources claimed that the advancing Ukrainian troops were equipped with US-donated Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, while unverified video appeared to show American Stryker vehicles also involved in the fight.
Ukraine was said to have prepared the operation in advance, bringing air defence systems to the border to protect their forces. There were also fears amongst Russian military bloggers that Kyiv’s newly-acquired F-16 fighter jets could be brought into the battle.
Russia responded to the initial incursion by calling up reserves, including Chechen special forces, and the air force.
A video published on social media appeared to show two Russian jets swooping low over a highway as black smoke rose from a burning vehicle on the Russian side of the border.
Over the past 24 hours, air raid sirens have repeatedly sounded out across the Kursk region, Russian state media reported.
Alexey Smirnov, the governor of Kursk, said two Ukrainian rockets had been shot down over the region.
He had earlier urged citizens in the area to shelter and also consider donating blood.
Local authorities said at least five people died in the offensive and 28 more were injured, the bulk of them residents of Sudzha and Korenevo, according to the region’s chief surgeon Andrey Loktionov.
Russia’s defence ministry said on Wednesday that it had beaten back Ukraine’s forces with “air strikes, missile forces, artillery fire and active actions by units covering the state border”.
It also claimed Ukraine had lost “260 militants and 50 armoured vehicles, including seven tanks”.
The Telegraph could not independently verify these claims.
Following talks with his security chiefs, Putin appointed Denis Manturov, the Russian deputy prime minister, to oversee the response to Ukraine’s cross-border raid.
Despite the claims from Moscow that the situation was under control, Russian military bloggers issued a furious response at the defence ministry’s failure to secure Kursk.
Anastasia Kashevarova, a blogger with 250,000 subscribers, said: “We knew that the Ukrainian armed forces would go to Kursk Oblast. We knew that they were pulling forces together. We knew everything as usual, the guys from the fields reported it, but the higher-ups did nothing.”
Russian sources speculated that Ukraine was intent on advancing as far as the Kursk nuclear power plant, about 68 miles from the border, in revenge for the seizure of the Ukrainian plant in Zaporizhzhia.
Explosions were heard in Kurchatov, where the nuclear power station is located, local Telegram channels wrote, sharing what they claimed to be eye witness video footage taken by a resident.
Alexander Sladkov, a Russian war correspondent, wrote: “Why does the Ukrainian armed forces need the Kursk nuclear power plant? It will come in handy. There are many options.”
He added that Ukraine could demand that Russia leave the occupied plant in Zaporizhzhia in exchange for its forces leaving Kursk.
Western analysts said the Ukrainian operation was unlikely to achieve war-defining results or even drag significant resources away from Russia’s offensive in eastern Ukraine.
“A limited operation might be able to achieve limited goals, but a more ambitious operation carries greater risks. It is unlikely this operation will have a significant effect on the course of the war,” Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the foreign policy research institute, a US think tank, said.
Mick Ryan, a former Australian general, said: “One potential driver is political. The government of Ukraine wants to shift momentum and the strategic narrative, and have directed such an operation.
“Another potential driver is operational. That is, to draw away Russian forces from the Donbas to defend on the Kursk axis. However, given Russian advantages in manpower, Russia can probably cover both with limited impact on its operations in eastern Ukraine.”