Kyiv: Russian forces thwarted an attempt at another Ukrainian cross-border incursion into southwestern Russia, a local official said Sunday, months after kyiv staged a bold attack on its nuclear-armed enemy that Moscow is still struggling to stop.
An “armed group” tried to cross the border between Ukraine and the Russian region of Bryansk on Sunday, its governor, Aleksandr Bogomaz, said, but was repulsed. Bogomaz did not clarify whether Ukrainian soldiers carried out the alleged attack, but said late Sunday that the situation was “stable and under control” by the Russian military.
There was no immediate acknowledgment or response from Ukrainian officials.
The region neighbors Kursk province, where Ukraine launched a surprise attack on August 6 that shook the Kremlin and was the largest attack on Russia since World War II. Hundreds of Russian prisoners were bandaged and trucked away in the opening moments of the lightning advance, and Ukraine’s battle-hardened units advanced rapidly across hundreds of square miles of territory.
Responsibility for previous incursions into Russia’s Belgorod and Bryansk regions has been claimed by two shady groups: the Russian Volunteer Corps and the Russian Freedom Legion.
Russian officials and state media have tried to downplay the significance of kyiv’s thunderous advance into Kursk, but the country’s forces have so far been unable to dislodge Ukrainian troops from the province. Western officials have speculated that Moscow could send troops from North Korea to reinforce its efforts in that regard, fueling the nearly three-year war and bringing geopolitical consequences as far as the Indo-Pacific region.
Russian lawmakers on Thursday ratified a pact with Pyongyang that provides for mutual military assistance, a move that comes as the United States confirmed the deployment of 3,000 North Korean troops to Russia.
North Korean units were detected on Wednesday in Kursk, according to Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate, known by its acronym GUR. The soldiers had received several weeks of training at bases in eastern Russia and had been equipped with clothing for the coming winter, GUR said in a statement late Thursday. He provided no evidence for his claims.
Also on Sunday, the Russian president Vladimir Putin He said Moscow is working on ways to respond if the United States and its NATO allies allow Ukraine to strike deep inside Russia with long-range Western missiles.
Putin told Russian state television that it was too early to say exactly how Moscow might react, but the Defense Ministry has been considering a number of options.
Russia has repeatedly signaled that it would consider any such attack a major escalation. The Kremlin leader warned on September 12 that Moscow would be “at war” with the United States and NATO states if they approve them, claiming that the bloc’s military infrastructure and personnel would have to participate in the selection and launch of the missiles.
He reinforced the message by announcing a new version of nuclear doctrine that considers a conventional attack against Russia by a non-nuclear nation supported by nuclear energy as a joint attack against his country, a clear warning to the United States and other allies of kyiv. .
Putin also stated that the revised document provides for the possible use of nuclear weapons in the event of a massive airstrike, opening the door to a possible nuclear response to any airstrike, an ambiguity intended to deter the West.
Ukrainian leaders have repeatedly said they need permission to attack weapons depots, airfields and military bases far from the border to motivate Russia to seek peace. In response, US defense officials have argued that the missiles are limited in number and that Ukraine is already using its own long-range drones to hit targets deeper inside Russia.
That capability was evidenced by a Ukrainian drone attack in mid-September that hit a large Russian military depot in a city 500 kilometers (300 miles) from the border.
The United States allows kyiv to use US-supplied weapons in more limited cross-border attacks to counter attacks by Russian forces.
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