Russia vows ‘extremely’ harsh response to incursions from Ukraine

MOSCOW: Russia threatened Kyiv on Wednesday it would respond “extremely” harshly to all future incursions, after Moscow deployed jets and artillery to fight off an armed group that crossed over from Ukraine.

As Russia took stock following the most serious attack on its soil since Moscow´s offensive in Ukraine began in February 2022, the chief of the Wagner mercenary group said 10,000 prisoners he recruited died in Ukraine. “We will continue to respond promptly and extremely harshly to such actions by Ukrainian militants,” Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu told military officials after two days of fighting in the southern region of Belgorod.

On Wednesday, Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, said that the territory was targeted overnight by numerous drones. Regional authorities said that 13 people had been injured as the region came under sustained artillery and mortar fire. Moscow said that Russian forces had killed “more than 70 Ukrainian terrorists” and had destroyed several armed vehicles during the skirmishes, but AFP was unable to independently verify the claims. Russia said that the remaining fighters had been driven back across the border. Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, whose ragtag forces have been leading an assault for the eastern city of Bakhmut, said around 10,000 convicts that he had recruited to fight with Wagner were killed on the battlefield in Ukraine. “I took 50,000 prisoners of which around 20 percent were killed,” Prigozhin said in a video interview published late on Tuesday. Prigozhin said a similar percentage were killed among those who had signed a contract with Wagner, but did not give a precise figure.