KYIV: Pro-Ukrainian groups staged a brazen cross-border raid on Tuesday, claiming to take control of a Russian village, as Kyiv launched one of its largest drone attacks since the start of the war.
Groups of pro-Kyiv volunteer fighters, made up of Russians who oppose the Kremlin, said that they had broken into the Kursk and Belgorod regions, while Moscow said it had fired rockets and artillery to foil the attempted incursion.
"The village of Tyotkino, Kursk region is completely under the control of Russian liberation forces," the Freedom of Russia legion, a groups that claims to be made up of Russian citizens fighting on behalf of Ukraine, said in a post on Telegram.
It published a video purporting to show a handful of Russian troops fleeing across a snowy field.
Moscow denied that the fighters had made ground, saying its forces had thwarted multiple attacks.
"At about 3:00 am, Ukrainian groups, after intensive shelling of civilian sites, tried to attack Russian territory in three directions," Russia's defence ministry said.
"All the Ukrainian attacks were repelled. The enemy was hit by aircraft, rockets and artillery," it added. Another attack at 8:00 am at Tyotkino was also foiled, it added.
Russia's defence ministry said it halted the last attack at 8:25 am, but a spokesperson for the Freedom of Russia region said that fighting was ongoing.
Moscow also reported a wave of Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian border regions overnight and throughout Tuesday. In one statement it said it had shot down four Ukrainian drones over the Kursk region in the space of an hour. Kursk Governor Roman Starovoyt said there had been a shoot-out in his region.
The neighbouring Belgorod region was also hit in a series of drone attacks on Tuesday -- including a strike on Belgorod city hall, the regional governor said.
Russia's FSB security service said that since Sunday it had repelled a number of attempted cross-border attacks in the Belgorod and Kursk regions.
A spokesman for Ukraine's military intelligence, Andriy Yusov, said the fighters were not acting under orders from Kyiv.
Kyiv launched one of its most significant drone strikes on Russia so far in the two-year war.
Two Russian energy sites, including one of the largest oil refineries some 800 kilometres from the border, were hit overnight, Russian officials said.
Ukraine has justified attacks on Russian energy sites as legitimate targeting of infrastructure used to fuel the invasion. It did not claim responsibility for Tuesday's strikes.
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