The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) have gained a foothold inside Russian territory for the first time since the war began, having made a cross-border incursion into Russia’s southwestern Kursk region on Tuesday, Russian pro-war Telegram channel Rybar reported on Wednesday, Paralel.Az reports citing Novaya Gazeta.

The AFU are now in control of the Russian border villages of Nikolaevo-Daryino, Daryino, and Sverdlikovo, while fighting is ongoing for control of the settlements of Goncharovka and Oleshna, according to Rybar.

The operation appeared to have been “planned for a long time” and involved some 400 Ukrainian troops, with up to another 2,000 troops concentrated along the border, Rybar said, adding that it expected the AFU to attempt to “expand their area of control further” over the coming days.

Russian independent news outlet Pepel published drone footage appearing to show at least six Russian soldiers being taken prisoner by Ukrainian forces, with other videos circulated by Ukrainian Telegram channels showing at least two Russian men who said they were conscripts captured by the AFU in the region.

The Kursk regional authorities reported that two people were killed when a drone hit an ambulance on Tuesday evening as AFU incursions into the region continued overnight.

In its daily report, Russia’s Defence Ministry reported that it had downed four drones over the Kursk region, as well as three over the Belgorod region and two each over the Rostov and Voronezh regions, but made no mention of AFU advances into Russian territory.

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09:30

Kyiv kept up air attacks on Russia's Kursk border region on Wednesday, with defence systems destroying four drones overnight, the Russian defence ministry said, a day after Moscow accused Ukraine of targeting the area with an armoured assault, Paralel.Az reports citing Reuters.

The ministry had sent reserves on Tuesday to help repel hundreds of Ukrainian fighters backed by tanks from Kursk, in a ground incursion shaping as one the largest into Russian territory during the war, now more than two years old.

The situation was "controllable", Alexei Smirnov, the acting governor of the southwestern Russian region, said in posts on the Telegram messaging app.

All emergency services were on "high alert", he said on Wednesday, calling for people to donate blood to replenish medical supplies.

The region was under a dozen air raid alerts over the past 24 hours, Smirnov's posts showed. By Wednesday morning, there were no reports of fresh ground fighting.

Five people were killed, including two ambulance crew, with at least 20 wounded, among them six children, in the fighting that erupted on Tuesday, Russian officials said.

Ukraine made no official comment, though there was evidence of some military action from its side of the border. Both Kyiv and Moscow say their attacks do not target civilians.

Ukraine regularly fires artillery and missiles into Russian territory, and has hit targets deep inside Russia with long-range attack drones, but infantry raids are rare.

Forces describing themselves as voluntary paramilitaries fighting on Ukraine's side inflicted minimal damage in a major incursion into parts of Belgorod and Kursk region this year, but the purpose of the raids remains unclear.

On Tuesday, Ukraine's general staff made no mention of any Ukrainian offensive operation inside Russia.

Official Russian social media accounts said up to 300 Ukrainian fighters, backed by tanks, had attacked border units in two localities in Kursk - Nikolayevo-Daryino and Oleshnya.