Russian troops thwart attempted cross-border attack from Ukraine, official says

The region borders Kursk province, where Ukraine launched a surprise attack on August 6 that rattled the Kremlin and marked the biggest attack on Russia since World War II. Hundreds of Russian prisoners were blindfolded and taken away in trucks in the first moments of the lightning advance, and Ukraine’s battle-hardened units quickly pushed through hundreds of square kilometers of territory.

Responsibility for previous raids on Russia’s Belgorod and Bryansk regions has been claimed by two shadowy groups: the Russian Volunteer Corps and the Legion of Freedom of Russia.

Russian officials and state media have tried to downplay the significance of Kiev’s thunderous attack on Kursk, but the country’s armed forces have so far failed to drive Ukrainian forces out of the province. Western officials have speculated that Moscow could send troops from North Korea to bolster its efforts to do so, fueling the nearly three-year war and creating geopolitical ramifications as far away as the Indo-Pacific region.

Russian lawmakers ratified a pact with Pyongyang on Thursday providing 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 in Kursk on Wednesday, according to Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate, known by the acronym GUR. The soldiers had undergone several weeks of training at bases in eastern Russia and were equipped with clothing for the coming winter, GUR said in a statement late Thursday. It provided no evidence for its claims.

Also on Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow is working on ways to respond if the United States and its NATO allies allow Ukraine to attack deep into Russia with Western long-range missiles.

Putin told Russian state television that it was too early to say exactly how Moscow might respond, but the Defense Ministry had considered a range of options.

Russia has repeatedly indicated that it would consider such attacks 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 approved it. He claimed that military infrastructure and personnel from the bloc should be involved in targeting and firing the missiles.

He reinforced the message by announcing a new version of the nuclear doctrine, which considers a conventional attack on Russia by a non-nuclear nation backed by a nuclear power as a joint attack on its country – a clear warning to the United States and other allies. from Kiev.

Putin also stated that the revised document foresees 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 number of missiles is limited, and that Ukraine is already using its own long-range drones to hit targets further into Russia.

That capability was evidenced by a Ukrainian drone strike in mid-September that hit a large Russian military depot in a city 300 miles from the border.

The United States is allowing Kyiv to use American-supplied weapons in more limited, cross-border attacks to counter attacks by Russian forces.

In a separate update, Bogomaz said more than a dozen Ukrainian drones were shot down over the region on Sunday. Separately, a total of at least 16 drones were downed over other Russian regions, including Tambov province, some 300 miles (470 kilometers) north of the border, officials said. There were no reports of casualties as a result of the alleged attacks.

Russian shelling killed three civilians in Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson on Sunday, local governor Oleksandr Prokudin said. Another Kherson resident died in a fire sparked by shells that hit a high-rise building, according to the Ukrainian Emergency Service.

Air raid sirens blared for more than three hours in Kiev overnight on Sunday, and city authorities later reported that “about ten” drones had been shot down. They said no one was injured. The Ukrainian air force reported on Sunday that it had shot down 41 drones launched by Russia over Ukrainian territory.