ISTANBUL
Russia announced on Sunday that at least 21 more people had been injured as a result of Ukrainian airstrikes carried out overnight in several regions, including the Kursk border region, the scene of clashes between the two countries since the beginning of the week.
“Fifteen other people were injured as a result of the debris of a rocket that fell on a construction in the regional center (of the Kursk region), all are receiving medical treatment,” Kursk Governor Alexei Smirnov said on TelegramArray.
The governor also said that a Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance organization had entered the Belovsky regional district and that Russian forces had “stabilized the situation. “
Separately, Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said Saturday night’s shelling in the town of Chebekino, about 7 kilometers from the Russian-Ukrainian border, injured five more people and destroyed several buildings, as well as apartment buildings.
Gladkov later said that one user was injured by shrapnel after three Ukrainian drones attacked another construction in Shebekino overnight.
The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that its air defenses shot down 14 Ukrainian drones and 4 Tochka missiles over the Kursk region, as well as another 20 drones over the Voronezh, Belgorod, Bryansk and Oryol regions.
The ministry later claimed in another that it had repelled Ukrainian incursions in areas near the settlements of Tolpino, Zhuravli and Obshchy Kolodez.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova condemned the overnight airstrikes in the region in a statement issued through the ministry, which also called on foreign organizations to condemn the attacks.
Local governments in the Bryansk, Orel, and Voronezh regions reported no casualties even in their respective regions.
The Ukrainian government has not yet commented on those claims.
On Tuesday, Russia said Ukrainian troops, adding tanks and armored fighting vehicles, attacked its military positions near two border settlements in the Kursk region.
Moscow has since said it has repelled incursions by Ukrainian forces into the border region, in addition to countering airstrikes introduced in and around Kursk.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday accused Kyiv of “large-scale provocation” and “indiscriminate shooting. “Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy then commented on allegations of a Ukrainian incursion into Kursk, saying, “Russia started the war on our territory and feels what it did. “
The clashes took place in particular in the Sudzhansky and Korenevsky districts, adjacent to the Sumy region in northeastern Ukraine, which is also a target of Russian airstrikes.
Russia said more than 76,000 citizens were evacuated from the Kursk region, while the local government of the Sumy region announced a desire to evacuate about 20,000 more people in the region while mandatory evacuations continue for citizens living in 28 localities in the border region.