Belgorod governor reports attempted Ukrainian cross-border incursion into Russian region

The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) have attempted a cross-border incursion into Russia’s southwestern Belgorod region, Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on his Telegram channel on Tuesday.

“Reports have emerged that the enemy is trying to break through the Belgorod region border. According to the Russian Defence Ministry, the situation on the border remains difficult but under control,” Gladkov said, urging residents to “remain calm” and only to trust official news sources.

Aside from Gladkov, no official sources have commented on the reported AFU attack, though the Russian Defence Ministry said that it had repelled “a terror attack with the use of aerial drones” on the Belgorod region on Tuesday afternoon.

Pro-Russian Telegram channel Mash reported fighting around the Belgorod region’s Shebekino and Nekhoteyevka border crossings with Ukraine, adding that “a group of 500 AFU soldiers” was trying to break through the border “using the same tactics” as they did in their recent incursion into the neighbouring Kursk region.

The AFU approached the Nekhoteyevka border checkpoint in eight armoured vehicles carrying up to 60 soldiers at around 8am on Tuesday, but were pushed back by Russian artillery and aviation units, Telegram channel SHOT reported, though it later said that there had been no AFU attack on the Shebekino border checkpoint.

Kyiv has not commented on the reported attack on the Belgorod region, but its three-week-old AFU incursion into the Kursk region has shown no sign of stopping.

According to news outlet RBC Ukraine, AFU Commander-in-Chief General Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Tuesday that Ukraine currently controlled over 1,294 square kilometres and 100 towns and villages in Russia’s Kursk region, and that the AFU had taken 594 Russian soldiers captive during its incursion so far.

Syrskyi added that the Russian military had deployed some 30,000 servicemen to the Kursk region to halt the Ukrainian offensive, “trying to create a ring of defence” around the Ukrainian troops, planning a counteroffensive. “But, of course, our actions prevent that,” he said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that the AFU had advanced a further 1–3 kilometres into the Kursk region, capturing two more population centres that he declined to name.

The Kremlin vowed to mount “an appropriate response” to Ukraine’s “hostile actions” on Monday, adding that the topic of ceasefire negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv had “pretty much lost is relevance” since the AFU incursion into Russian territory.