Russia claims it repelled incursion in 24-hour fight
KYIV, UKRAINE » Russia's military said Tuesday it quashed what appeared to be one of the most serious cross-border attacks from Ukraine since the war began, claiming to have killed more than 70 attackers in a battle that lasted around 24 hours.
Moscow blamed the raid that began Monday on Ukrainian military saboteurs. Kyiv portrayed it as an uprising against the Kremlin by Russian partisans. It was impossible to reconcile the two versions, to say with certainty who was behind the attack or to ascertain its aims.
The battle, which took place in southwest Russia's Belgorod region, about 45 miles north of the city of Kharkiv, in eastern Ukraine, was a fresh reminder of how Russia itself remains vulnerable to attack, along with Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine.
The region is a Russian military hub holding fuel and ammunition depots and was included in Russian President Vladimir Putin's order last year to increase the state of readiness for attacks and improve defenses.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to say how many attackers were involved in the assault or comment on why efforts to put down the attackers took so long.
Such cross-border attacks embarrass the Kremlin and highlight the struggles it faces in its boggeddown invasion of Ukraine.
The Belgorod region, like the neighboring Bryansk region and other border areas, has witnessed sporadic spillover from the war, which Russia started by invading Ukraine in February 2022.
Far from the 932-mile front line in southern and eastern Ukraine, Russian border towns and villages regularly come under shelling and drone attacks, but this week's attack is the second in recent months that also appears to have involved an incursion by ground forces.
Another difference from earlier cross-border attacks is that Russia's effort to repel it had continued into a second day for the first time.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov claimed local troops, air strikes and artillery routed the attackers.
“The remnants of the nationalists were driven back to the territory of Ukraine, where they continued to be hit by fire until they were completely eliminated,” Konashenkov said, without providing evidence. He did not mention any Russian casualties.
Russian forces destroyed four armored combat vehicles and five pickups the attackers used, he said. Local officials alleged the invaders also used drones and artillery. The governor of the Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said the raid targeted the rural area around Graivoron, a town about 3 miles from the border.
Twelve civilians were wounded in the attack, he said, and an older woman died during an evacuation.
The Russian news portal RBK, quoting unidentified sources in the regional interior ministry and territorial police, said Graivoron came under heavy shelling that lasted about five hours early Monday. After that, tanks fired at the Graivoron border checkpoint while the adjacent village of Kozinka came under mortar and rocket fire, RBK said, citing the same sources. Gladkov later reported that a Koznika villager had been killed.
The attacking force was made up of 10 armored vehicles and an unspecified number of troops, RBK had said.
Earlier Tuesday, the regional governor urged residents who had evacuated not to return home until they received official instructions to do so.