According to the official, Russian forces thwarted an attempted attack from Ukraine

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces thwarted another Ukrainian cross-border incursion into southwestern Russia, a local official said Sunday, months after Kiev launched a daring attack on its nuclear-armed foe that Moscow still trying to stop.

An “armed group” tried to cross the border between Ukraine and Russia’s Bryansk region on Sunday, its governor Aleksandr Bogomaz said, but was repelled. Bogomaz did not clarify whether the alleged attack was carried out by Ukrainian soldiers, but said on Sunday evening that the situation was “stable and under the control” of the Russian military.

There was no immediate confirmation or response from Ukrainian officials.

The region is adjacent to the Kursk ring road, where Ukraine is located launched a surprise attack August 6, which shocked the Kremlin and was the largest attack on Russia since World War II. In the first moments of the lightning advance, hundreds of Russian prisoners were blindfolded and transported by truck, while battle-hardened Ukrainian units rapidly advanced into territory covering hundreds of square miles (square kilometers).

Responsibility for previous invasions of the Russian Belagorod and Bryansk oblasts two obscure groups claimed rights: the Russian Volunteer Corps and the Russian Freedom Legion.

Russian officials and state media are trying to downplay the significance of Kiev’s turbulent attack near Kursk, but the armed forces have so far failed to dislodge Ukrainian troops from the province. Western officials speculate that Moscow may send soldiers from North Korea intensifying efforts in this direction, fueling an almost three-year war and carrying geopolitical consequences all the way to the Indo-Pacific region.

Russian parliamentarians ratified Art pact and Pyongyang anticipates mutual military assistance, which comes after the United States confirmed the deployment of 3,000 North Korean troops to Russia.

According to the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine, known by its acronym GUR, North Korean units were detected in Kursk on Wednesday. The soldiers underwent several weeks of training at bases in eastern Russia and were equipped with clothes for the coming winter, the GUR said in a statement published late on Thursday evening. She did not provide evidence for her claims.

Also on Sunday President of Russia Vladimir Putin stated that Moscow is working on ways to respond if the United States and its NATO allies allow Ukraine to strike deep into Russia with Western long-range missiles.

Putin told Russian state television it was too early to say exactly how Moscow would respond, but the defense ministry was considering a number of options.

Russia has repeatedly signaled that it would consider any such attacks a serious escalation. The Kremlin leader warned on September 12 that Moscow would be “at war” with the US and NATO countries if they approved it, saying the bloc’s military infrastructure and personnel would have to be involved in targeting and firing the missiles.

He reinforced the message through the announcement new version nuclear doctrine, which considers a conventional attack on Russia by a non-nuclear state supported by a nuclear force as a joint attack on its country – clear warning to the US and other allies of Kiev.

Putin also stated that the revised document provides for the possibility of using nuclear weapons in the event of a massive air attack, opening the door to a potential nuclear response to any air attack – an ambiguity intended to deter the West.

Ukrainian leaders have repeatedly said they need permission to attack weapons depots, airports and military bases far from the border to motivate Russia to pursue peace. In response, U.S. defense officials argued that the number of missiles was limited and that Ukraine was already using its own long-range drones to hit targets further inside Russia.

This ability was confirmed, among others, by: Ukrainian a mid-September drone attack that hit a large Russian military depot in a city 500 kilometers (300 miles) from the border.

The United States is allowing Kiev to use American-supplied weapons in more limited cross-border strikes to counter attacks by Russian forces.

In a separate update, Bryansk Governor Bogomaz said that over a dozen Ukrainian drones were shot down over the region on Sunday. Separately, at least 16 drones were shot down over other regions of Russia, including Tambov province, about 450 kilometers (290 miles) north of the border, officials said. There are no reports of victims in any of the alleged attacks.

According to local governor Oleksandr Prokudin, three civilians were killed on Sunday in Kherson in southern Ukraine as a result of Russian shelling. According to the Ukrainian emergency services, another resident of Kherson died in a fire caused by missiles hitting a skyscraper.

Emergency sirens blared in Kiev for more than three hours overnight into Sunday, and city authorities later said that “around 10” drones had been shot down. They said no one was hurt. On Sunday, the Ukrainian Air Force said it shot down 41 drones launched by Russia over Ukrainian territory.

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