Russian official says border ‘under control’ after reported Ukrainian attack

MOSCOW (Reuters) -The head of Russia’s western Belgorod region said the situation on the border with Ukraine was “difficult but under control” after reports of a Ukrainian attack on Tuesday.

Belgorod and other border areas have been on high alert since Ukraine launched a lightning attack on neighbouring Kursk region three weeks ago and carved out a slice of territory from which Russia is still fighting to eject it.

Regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov issued a brief statement after Russian Telegram channels reported an attempted attack on Belgorod region on Tuesday morning.

“There is information that the enemy is trying to break through the border of the Belgorod region,” Gladkov wrote on Telegram.

“According to the Russian defence ministry, the situation on the border remains difficult, but under control. Our military is carrying out planned work. Please remain calm and trust only official sources of information.”

SHOT, a Telegram news channel, said earlier that Ukrainian forces had attacked a border checkpoint at Nekhoteyevka but been pushed back after suffering losses.

Mash, another channel with links to the security services, said a total of about 500 Ukrainian troops had attacked two Russian checkpoints at Nekhoteyevka and Shebekino, but SHOT said there had been no clashes at Shebekino.

Reuters was unable to independently verify the battlefield reports.

A Russian military blog with nearly 1.6 million subscribers, “Operation Z – military correspondents of the Russian Spring”, said there had been no major attempts to pierce the border.

“There were clashes with (Ukrainian) sabotage and reconnaissance groups and (Russian) artillery is working. No large-scale attempts to break through have been recorded,” it said.

Three weeks ago, Russia was caught by surprise in neighbouring Kursk region when thousands of Ukrainian soldiers punched through the border in the biggest foreign attack on sovereign Russian territory since World War Two.

Russia says Ukraine sent in thousands of troops along with sabotage units, swarms of drones, heavy artillery, dozens of tanks and heavy Western weaponry, which it says it will eject from Russian territory.

Since then, neighbouring Russian regions have been braced for the possibility of further attacks.

Belgorod governor Gladkov said in separate messages that authorities were making arrangements to resettle residents of a group of villages near the border and pay compensation to them.

“Our situation continues to remain difficult,” said Gladkov, who also reported shelling and drone attacks on three local settlements overnight.

(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Mark Trevelyan; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)