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Russia ordered the evacuation of settlements in a second border region on Monday, a week into Ukraine’s surprise offensive in to Russian territory.
In addition to the Kursk region, Ukrainian forces had launched attacks in the southern Belgorod area, according to Russian authorities, in what has been the largest incursion by Ukraine since the second world war. Kyiv has occupied at least 140 sq km despite Russia deploying reinforcements to the areas, according to Ukrainian war analysis site Deepstate, which has links to the military.
The rouble fell 1.9 per cent to trade at 90 to the dollar, its weakest level since May.
Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said early on Monday there was “enemy activity on the border” and residents of five settlements in Krasnoyaruzhsky district, which borders Ukraine’s Sumy region, should evacuate.
Ukrainian forces had been shelling the area, damaging a house and a power line, according to Gladkov.
More than 76,000 civilians had been evacuated from the Kursk border region by Saturday, according to regional authorities.
Russia’s defence ministry had asked regional authorities to cut electricity to several settlements in Belgorod’s Grayvoronskyi district, which also borders Ukraine, Gladkov said.
Russian military blogger Alexander Kots claimed that a small number of Ukrainian forces had attempted to cross the border at the Kolotilovka checkpoint in Krasnoyaruzhsky district as well as at the Bezymeno checkpoint in Grayvoronskyi but had been pushed back.
Kotz said Ukrainian forces were looking for places where they could push through. The Financial Times could not verify the claims.
In June 2023, Ukrainian forces carried out a raid into Grayvoronskyi district that analysts judged as an attempt to demonstrate Russia’s weak border defences.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday — in a thinly veiled reference to the Kursk operation — that Ukraine wanted to “push the war on to the aggressor’s territory” and put “pressure” on Russia to “restore justice”.
Ukrainian officials have been tight-lipped about the operations but analysts say that they could be aimed at diverting Russian forces and to use the captured territory as leverage in any potential talks. Ukrainian forces are struggling to hold the line in the eastern Donbas region, where Russian troops have made some territorial gains.
Separately, Ukraine claimed Russia had started a fire at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which has been under Russian occupation since March 2022.
Zelenskyy said that radiation levels were normal but warned that, as long as Russia controlled the plant, there was a threat.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, which has access to the plant, said it had been told that there had been a drone attack on one of the cooling towers.
“No impact has been reported for nuclear safety,” the IAEA said in a statement posted on X.
Rosatom, the Russian state-owned company that operates the plant, said the “main fire” had been extinguished shortly before midnight on Sunday.
https://www.ft.com/content/0c302872-47d3-41b0-adac-3bb925bbd1ad
