Russia has imposed a comprehensive security regime in three border regions on Saturday, while it has mobilized forces to counter the largest Ukrainian attack on Russian sovereign territory since the start of the war in February 2022.
Ukrainian forces breached the Russian border early on Tuesday and advanced into several western parts of Russia’s Kursk region, a surprise attack that may aim to gain leverage in potential ceasefire negotiations following the U.S. elections. President Vladimir Putin described it as a major provocation, and although the top Russian general Valery Gerasimov stated on Wednesday that the Ukrainian attack had been halted, Russia has so far failed to push Ukrainian forces back beyond the border.
“The enemy has been stopped, but this does not mean that everything is calm. Serious fighting is taking place there,” said Andrei Gurulyov, a general who served in the Soviet and Russian forces and is now a legislator for the ruling party.
Russian military bloggers said the situation had stabilized after Russia hastily sent forces to halt the Ukrainian advance, though they reported that Ukraine was rapidly sending reinforcements and that intense battles were ongoing.
The Ukrainian attack on Russia has prompted some in Moscow to question how Ukraine was able to penetrate the Kursk region so easily after more than two years of the most intense land warfare in Europe since World War II.
Ukrainian leaders have remained silent about the operation, but President Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier this week said Russia must “feel” the full consequences of the aggression it has waged against Ukraine since February 2022.
Alexander Bortnikov, head of the Federal Security Service (FSB), ordered the imposition of an anti-terrorist regime in the Kursk, Bryansk, and Belgorod regions, which cover an area of about 92,000 square kilometers.
“The Kiev regime has made an unprecedented attempt to destabilize the situation in several regions of our country,” said the Russian National Anti-Terrorism Committee, emphasizing that there are casualties among civilians.
The Russian measures essentially grant security services comprehensive powers to block an area, including controls over communications and restrictions on various freedoms. Thousands of civilians have been evacuated from the Kursk region.
Some reports suggested that Ukrainian forces were advancing towards the Kursk nuclear power plant, which supplies a large part of southern Russia with electricity. It has a total of six reactors, two of which are closed, two under repair, and two operational.
The head of the UN Atomic Energy Agency noted “significant military activity” in the area and called for restraint.
Russian diplomats in Vienna told the agency that fragments, possibly from downed rockets, had been found nearby, although there was no evidence of an attack on the power plant.
