Heavy fighting in Kursk for fourth day – Russia’s ‘anti-terrorist operation’ on Ukraine border

Moscow announced that it had launched an “anti-terrorist operation” in three regions bordering Ukraine, days after the largest incursion by Ukrainian forces into Russian territory since the outbreak of the war in late February 2022.

The National Anti-Terrorism Committee announced last Friday evening the start of “counter-terrorism operations in the Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk regions (…) to ensure the safety of citizens and put an end to the threat of terrorist acts committed by hostile subversive groups.”

Meanwhile, the governor of Lipetsk announced that a civilian was killed in a Ukrainian drone attack in its capital of the same name, about 300 kilometers from the border. Governor Igor Artamonov also reported in a telegram that air defenses had destroyed 19 Ukrainian drones overnight.

For its part, the Defense Ministry in Moscow announced that 32 Ukrainian drones were shot down overnight, 26 of them in the Kursk region – between Lipetsk and Ukraine – and six others in the Yaroslavl region.

In Kursk, Rosatom State Corporation confirmed that the nuclear power plant is operating smoothly. It also said that it had decided to reduce the number of workers at the construction site of a new nuclear power plant under construction, due to the emergency.

Across the border, a civilian was killed in Russian missile strikes in the city of Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region, where fighting is raging, and two others were killed in the northeastern Kharkiv region, officials said.

Donetsk region governor Vadim Vilashkin said the Russians had hit “critical infrastructure” with a “rocket” that had caused significant damage. He did not specify what type of infrastructure or which one.

Yesterday, 14 people were killed and 43 others injured in a supermarket bombing in Kostanivka, also in the Donetsk region, which Moscow says it has annexed although it does not fully control it.

In Kharkiv, two people were killed when a house was shelled, according to Ukrainian police.