Russia says it thwarts Ukraine's attempts to enter Kursk region

Russia's defence ministry said on Sunday its forces had repelled six new Ukrainian attempts to enter its western Kursk region and had also taken control of the settlement of Makiivka in eastern Ukraine's Luhansk region.

The ministry said in a post on the Telegram messaging app that its forces, with the support of aircraft and artillery rounds, repelled attempts to enter the region near the village of Novy Put, some 79 kilometres (50 miles) west of Sudzha, a strategic crossing point for Russian natural gas exports to Europe via Ukraine.

Ukraine on Aug. 6 launched the biggest foreign attack on Russia since World War Two, bursting through the border into the Kursk region, supported by swarms of drones and heavy weaponry, including Western-made arms.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said earlier this month that his forces controlled 100 settlements in the Kursk region over an area of more than 1,300 sq km (500 sq miles). Russian sources disputed this figure and Russia says it has since taken back some villages in a counter-attack.

The defence ministry said 50 Ukrainian servicemen had been killed and injured in the latest attempted Kursk incursion, without specifying the exact number of deaths. It said a tank and four combat armoured vehicles, as well as a car were destroyed.

Reuters was not immediately able to corroborate the battlefield reports. Ukraine has not commented.

The Russian defence ministry also said on Sunday its air defence downed 125 Ukrainian drones overnight, while a residential apartment was hit in the western city of Voronezh according to the local governor.