Russia said Tuesday it was holding off Ukrainian troops, tanks and armoured vehicles trying to break across the border into its Kursk region, the latest in several such attempted incursions throughout the conflict, Paralel.Az reports citing AFP.

Moscow's defence ministry said it had rushed troops and aviation units to the southwestern region after Ukrainian units tried to attack Russian positions just inside the border.

"Border defence troops, together with military units of the FSB border force, are repelling attacks and inflicting fire damage on the enemy," the defence ministry said in a statement Tuesday.

It said Ukraine launched the attack with up to 300 troops, 11 tanks and more than 20 armoured combat vehicles at 08:00 Moscow time (0500 GMT) and Moscow had responded with air strikes on Ukrainian positions.

The Russian governor of the Kursk region said three people had been killed by Ukrainian forces throughout the day -- a woman in the attempted border incursion and two people whose vehicles were hit in separate drone attacks.

The defence ministry said the attack was focused on the settlements of Nikolaevo-Darino and Oleshnya -- just across from Ukraine's northeastern Sumy region.

Ukraine did not comment on the reports but the head of the Sumy region military administration, Oleksiy Drozdenko, told residents to pay attention to air raid alerts.