FLASH
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Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused Ukraine of launching "another major provocation" after defense officials said around 300 Ukrainian troops crossed into Russia's Kursk region yesterday.
Fighting is said to be continuing in the area, after Moscow announced that troops backed by 11 tanks and more than 20 armored fighting vehicles crossed the border near the town of Sudzha, 10 km (six miles) from the front line.
Thousands of people have fled their homes in the region, officials said, while Ukraine has yet to comment on the Russian accusations. Speaking before a Security Council meeting in Moscow, Putin accused Ukrainian forces of "indiscriminately firing" at civilian buildings and residences.
Fighting took place in various villages on Russian territory yesterday. It was followed by Ukrainian airstrikes that killed three civilians and continued into the night, Russian authorities said.
Twenty-four people, including six children, have been injured in Ukrainian shelling in the border region, Moscow said.
On Wednesday, Russia's Defense Ministry claimed it had prevented Ukraine's Armed Forces from advancing "deep into Russian territory" in the Kursk region and said it had destroyed several Ukrainian drones overnight.
However, a number of air strikes continued to be issued in Kursk, where local authorities asked residents to limit their movements and all public events were cancelled.
Footage posted online showed fighter jets flying over the region. Acting regional governor Alexei Smirnov said he had informed Russian President Vladimir Putin of the situation, which he said was under control.
Smirnov also said several thousand people had been evacuated from areas of the region that were under attack, and added that doctors from Moscow and St. Petersburg were on their way to help. Kiev has not yet commented on any of the reports about the events in Kursk.
A colonel in the Ukrainian army, Vladislav Seleznyov, told the popular channel Nexta that the attack was "preemptive" with about 75,000 Russian troops still massing near the border.
After a major cross-border incursion by Russia into the northeastern Kharkiv region in May, there had been fears that Moscow would attempt the same in the Sumy region further north.
With Ukraine now apparently capturing several settlements and highways from the other side, those ambitions may have been frustrated, for now. But with Ukrainian forces already stretched and outnumbered, some military analysts are questioning the wisdom of the raids. such cross-border.
This is not the first incursion into Russia by fighters based in Ukraine. Several anti-Kremlin Russian groups launched raids last year, which were repulsed. The forces moved back into the Belgorod and Kursk regions in March, where they engaged in clashes with Russian security forces.
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