Clashes are said to have taken place on Tuesday, August 27, on the Russian-Ukrainian border, 150 km south of the Kursk region, where Kyiv’s troops have already been leading an offensive for three weeks.
Is Ukraine attempting a new breakthrough into Russian territory while Moscow is raining bombs? Belgorod Region Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov reported on Tuesday, August 27, “informations” according to which “the enemy is trying to break through the border” in this region located about 150 km south of Kursk, where a Ukrainian offensive is underway.
It is currently impossible to know the exact extent of this attack or its progress. “According to the Minister of Defense, the situation at the border remains difficult but under control”the governor of Belgorod assured on Telegram. In another series of messages, however, he said he was making arrangements to resettle the inhabitants of a group of villages located near the border and pay them compensation. A state of emergency had already been declared in the region on August 14. According to the Russian Telegram channel MASH, known to be close to the authorities, Ukrainian soldiers are trying to enter the region via the town of Nekhoteevka, on the border with Ukraine, where fighting is underway. A Russian blog speaks of “clashes“, of “sabotage” and of “reconnaissance group” but not of a “large breakthrough attempt”.
The news comes three weeks to the day after the start of a Ukrainian military incursion into Russian soil, an operation of unprecedented scale since Russia launched its offensive against Ukraine in February 2022.
On the retreat for several months in the face of Russian troops in eastern Ukraine, the Ukrainian army entered the border region of Kursk, neighboring that of Belgorod, on August 6, where it seized dozens of localities. On Tuesday, the head of Russian foreign intelligence, Sergei Naryshkin, declared that Moscow did not believe that Ukraine had planned its incursion into the Kursk region itself, reported the state news agency TASS. Without providing evidence, he pointed the finger at the help of the United States in this offensive.
On the ground, the Russian army continues to push towards Donetsk in addition to massively bombing the entire Ukrainian territory for two days. It claimed on Tuesday to have conquered a new locality, Orlivka, in eastern Ukraine, about fifteen kilometers from the city of Pokrovsk, an important logistical hub for Ukrainian troops. “Units of the Central Troops Group liberated the village of Orlovka (the Russian name for Orlivka, editor’s note) in the Donetsk People’s Republic”the Russian Defense Ministry announced.
