(Moscow) Russia instituted a special “anti-terrorist operation” regime in three border areas with Ukraine on Saturday, the fifth day since the Ukrainian armed conflict in Kursk, according to Russia’s nuclear agency.
“The actions of the Ukrainian military pose a direct threat to the Kursk nuclear power plant,” Rosatom said in a statement cited by Russian news agencies. “There is a real danger of strikes and provocations by the Ukrainian military,” the text added.
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Raffaele Grossi, had already called in a press release for “maximum restraint in order to avoid a nuclear accident”. The Russian mission says it informed the IAEA that “fragments and debris, fragments of intercepted rockets” were found at the plant site on Thursday.
The Ukrainian offensive began on Tuesday morning, when units of the Kiev army crossed the border into the Kursk region, advancing several dozen kilometers, according to independent analysts.
Faced with this “unprecedented attempt to destabilize the situation”, Russian authorities announced the establishment of a “regime of anti-terrorist operations” in the regions of Kursk, Belgorod and Bryansk, bordering Ukraine, overnight from Friday to Saturday.
The regime specifically provides for “traffic restrictions for vehicles and pedestrians on streets, roads” and restrictions on the use of communication devices.
Reinforcement of Belarusian troops
On Saturday, the Russian Defense Ministry said it was “continuing to repulse border infiltration attempts by the Ukrainian Armed Forces” using aircraft and artillery in the Kursk region.
The ministry released footage purported to show tank crews firing on Ukrainian positions in the region and nighttime airstrikes. He assured on Friday that additional units have been deployed there.
Russian Defense Ministry photo provided by The Associated Press
In a telegram, the Defense Ministry of Belarus, a country allied with Moscow but whose military has not directly taken part in the hostilities, announced that it was reinforcing its units in the Komal (southern) region on the border with Ukraine. troops and missiles to respond to “any possible provocation”.
The mayor of the regional capital, the Russian city of Kursk, Igor Gautsak, told Telegram on Saturday that his administration had received more than 16,000 requests for help from people fleeing the region’s border areas.
Additional trains have been put in place for people who want to flee to the capital, Moscow.
According to Russian officials, five civilians were killed and 55 wounded.
An unexpected setback
On Friday, the Russian military confirmed it had reached the town of Chaudzha, a town of 5,500 people from Kyiv, and there is still a transit hub for gas supplies to Europe – Hungary, Slovakia – through Ukraine.
The progress and number of Ukrainian forces participating in the incursion is unknown, and Ukrainian leaders have refrained from commenting for now.
In his daily address on Friday evening, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appeared to congratulate his troops on this amazing move.
He thanked them for “efficiently” replenishing the “transaction fund” over the past three days, which was used to exchange captured Russian soldiers for Ukrainian prisoners.
Since the beginning of the infiltration, Russian military experts have reported that Russian soldiers were captured.
The unprecedented move was an unexpected setback for the Russians, who had held the initiative until then and were inexorably pitted against Kiev forces in eastern Ukraine.
The picture of the incursion painted by military experts shows the rapid progress of Ukrainian formations, while, in other parts of the front, the conflict has turned into a war since the end of 2022.
Russian soldiers, in large numbers and with better weapons, have been deployed in the Donetsk region in recent weeks, and analysts believe that if the trend continues, they could capture key cities.
The industrial town of Kostiantynivka, located about 13 kilometers from the front in the same area, was devastated by a broad daylight strike at a supermarket on Friday that left at least 14 dead and 43 injured, the prosecutor’s office said.
Russian troops opened a new front by attacking the Ukrainian region of Kharkiv (north-east), where they were blocked by the Kiev army in the city of Vovsansk, still in the grip of fighting.
Three civilians were killed overnight during Russian attacks in the Kharkiv region, the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office said on Saturday.
However, the Ukrainian military reported on Saturday the lowest number of “engagements” against Russian forces since June 10. Analysts have speculated that the incursion into Russia would free up Kiev by forcing Moscow to transfer units to other units on the frontline.
