Reuters. Russia accused Ukraine on Tuesday (August 6) of mounting an attack on its southern border and said it had moved in reserves to help repel hundreds of fighters backed by tanks.
Hours after a Russian regional governor said the attackers had been pushed back, the defense ministry issued a statement saying that fighting was still going on.
"Troops covering the state border, together with units of the border troops of the FSB (security service) of Russia, are repelling attacks and inflicting fire on the enemy in the area of the state border and on (Ukrainian) reserves in the Sumy region," the statement said.
It said Russia was using warplanes to strike Ukrainian armored vehicles, and had moved its own reserves into the area of the fighting.
One video showed warplanes flying over road in the area. Reuters was able to confirm the location of the video from the bus stops, tree lines and utility pole which matched file imagery of the area. Reuters was not able to independently verify the date of the footage.
Ukraine's general staff, in a regular update on Tuesday, reported Russian strikes on border villages but did not mention any Ukrainian offensive operation at the border.
Russian regions near the border have come under frequent Ukrainian shelling in the course of the war in Ukraine, as well as occasional incursions by groups of anti-Kremlin Russian volunteers who are fighting on Ukraine's side.
Moscow said up to 300 Ukrainian fighters, backed by tanks, had taken part in the reported attack on Tuesday against Russian border units in Nikolayevo-Daryino and Oleshnya, two settlements in Russia's Kursk region.
