Thousands flee as Russia battles major border attack from Ukraine

MOSCOW: Russia on Wednesday battled a major cross-border incursion from Ukraine for a second day, with several thousand civilians evacuated due to fighting, officials said.

The incursion began on Tuesday, with hundreds of soldiers and over two dozen armoured vehicles including tanks crossing from Ukraine into the western Kursk region, the Russian army said.

Russia said it launched air and artillery firepower to repel the attack, rushing reinforcements to the region to prevent Ukraine from making advances.

The damage was unclear, but President Vladimir Putin said Ukraine had attacked civilian buildings.

“The Kyiv regime has undertaken another large-scale provocation,” Putin said in a televised meeting with government officials.

“It is firing indiscriminately from various types of weapons, including rockets, at civilian buildings, residential houses and ambulances,” he added.

At least five civilians have been killed and 24 wounded since the incursion began, 13 of whom have been hospitalised, according to Russian officials.

Ukraine did not immediately comment.

Authorities in Ukraine´s northeastern Sumy region, just across the border from Kursk, announced they were evacuating about 6,000 people, without elaborating.

On the Russian side of the border, authorities evacuated several thousand people and cancelled mass gatherings, Kursk regional head Alexei Smirnov said.