KYIV, Ukraine —
Russia on Saturday announced increased security measures in the border region of Kursk, where an incursion this week by Ukrainian forces caught Russian troops off guard and exposed its military vulnerabilities in the nearly 2½-year-old war.
Fighting was continuing in the Kursk region and Russia is sending reinforcements to counter Ukraine’s raid, with Russia deploying multiple rocket launchers, towed artillery guns, tanks transported on trailers and heavy tracked vehicles, Russia’s Defense Ministry said.
About 76,000 residents of the area have been evacuated, a Russian Emergencies Ministry spokesman said Saturday.
There is fighting on the outskirts of Sudzha, a town about six miles from the Ukraine border that has an important pipeline transit hub for Russian natural gas exports to Europe.
The measures announced for Kursk, and for the neighboring Belgorod and Bryansk regions that border Ukraine, allow the government to relocate residents, control phone communications and requisition vehicles.
The raid that began on Tuesday is the largest cross-border foray of the war and raises concerns about fighting spreading well beyond Ukraine.
The strategic aims of the daring Ukrainian operation are unclear and there is little reliable information. Ukrainian officials have refused to comment on the incursion, which is taking place about 320 miles southwest of Moscow.
Five days after it was launched, Ukrainian officials still haven’t commented on the operation, but some Ukrainian soldiers appeared to break with that policy of silence by posting videos and photos on social media.
In one video posted late Friday, soldiers purported to be from the 61st Brigade hold a Ukrainian flag and appear to be standing outside a local Gazprom facility in Sudzha, based on signs in the background.
“Everything is calm in the town,” they say, adding, “All the buildings are safe, strategic object of Gazprom in Sudzha is under the control of the 99th Mechanized Battalion.”
A press officer for the brigade said they couldn’t comment on the authenticity of the video. The Associated Press has established that there is a Gazprom facility about 1¼ miles from the center of Sudzha, in a neighboring village on the outskirts of the town about five miles from the border.
In another video, Ukrainian soldiers from the 252 Battalion claim to be standing in the village of Poroz in Russia’s Belgorod region, nearly two miles from the border. The video marks the first time any incursion into that area has been reported. The AP geolocated the building where the soldiers stood, but couldn’t determine when the videos were shot.
Associated Press writer Kullab reported from Kyiv, Heintz from Tallinn, Estonia.