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IZ.RU\/Reuters<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nUkrainian troops are continuing their offensive in Russia\u2019s western Kursk region, as their surprise cross-border attack enters a fifth day.<\/p>\n The Russian defence ministry said on Friday it was \u201ccontinuing to repel\u201d Ukraine\u2019s military, which it claimed had lost more than 280 personnel in the past 24 hours – a figure that has not been independently verified.<\/p>\n Reports suggest that Ukrainian troops are operating more than 10km (six miles) inside Russia – the deepest advance by Kyiv since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.<\/p>\n Ukraine has not openly admitted the incursion, but President Volodymyr Zelensky said this week that Moscow must “feel” the consequences for its invasion.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Fighting in Kursk has edged gradually closer to a nuclear power plant, prompting the UN nuclear agency to release a statement urging the two sides to \u201cexercise maximum restraint\u201d.<\/p>\n International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi appealed to all sides to take measures \u201cto avoid a nuclear accident with the potential for serious radiological consequences\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Some residents of the Kursk region were evacuated by authorities, with a group pulling into Moscow\u2019s central train station on Friday. One unnamed resident told AFP news agency: “It’s terrible. They are bombing.\u201d<\/p>\n Russia’s defence ministry said more troops with heavy armoury were being deployed in the Kursk region.<\/p>\n A counter-terrorist operation has been declared there, as well as in the neighbouring Belgorod and Bryansk regions – a move that underlines how grave the current situation is.<\/p>\n The local authorities now have powers to restrict the movement of people and vehicles, allow the use of phone taps and impose temporary evacuations.<\/p>\n Separately, Ukraine’s military said it had struck a military airfield deep inside Russia on Friday, destroying a warehouse containing hundreds of glide bombs.<\/p>\n The targeting of the Lipetsk air base, more than 350km (217 miles) from Ukraine’s border, is the kind of operation Kyiv has been wanting to do for some time.<\/p>\n The weaponry it managed to destroy in the attack is the very kind Russia has used to terrorise Ukrainian towns, cities and military positions for most of its invasion.<\/p>\n The military’s statement also said the airfield was known for housing Russia’s Su-34, Su-35 and MiG-31 war planes.<\/p>\n Local Russian authorities said a state of emergency was in place in the area, confirming what they described as \u201cdetonations\u201d at an “energy infrastructure facility”. Residents of four nearby villages were evacuated.<\/p>\n Hours after Ukraine\u2019s strikes, Russia responded by striking a shopping centre in the Ukrainian town of Kostyantynivka, close to the frontline in the eastern Donetsk region, killing at least 14 people and injuring 43, Ukrainian officials said.<\/p>\n Residential buildings, shops and more than a dozen cars were also damaged in the attack.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Three days after Ukraine\u2019s offensive was launched on Tuesday, the Russian defence ministry said its forces were managing to suppress “raid attempts by enemy units”.<\/p>\n But a video checked by BBC Verify shows a different picture, with a 15-vehicle Russian convoy damaged, burned and abandoned on a road through the town of Oktyabrskoe, roughly 38km (24 miles) from the border on the Russian side.<\/p>\n The early morning footage also shows Russian soldiers, some injured, possibly dead among the vehicles.<\/p>\n Russia said that up to 1,000 Ukrainian troops, supported by tanks and armoured vehicles, entered the Kursk region as the offensive began.<\/p>\n Despite the deployment of reserve troops and orders to evacuate, Russia has been unable to slow the momentum of this Ukrainian advance.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n This is more than the probing attacks we have seen in the past.<\/p>\n It is a committed assault which has shocked Russia\u2019s military and the Kremlin. For the last 18 months, it has been Moscow dictating the dynamics of this war.<\/p>\n Now it is having to contain this attack, as well as domestic criticism for not preventing it in the first place.<\/p>\n Despite long-time Western worries of an escalation, the consensus among Ukraine\u2019s allies is that this operation falls within its right to defend itself.<\/p>\n While he is yet to directly reference the assault, President Zelensky said in a video address late on Thursday: \u201cRussia has brought the war to our land and should feel what it has done.\u201d<\/p>\n But with his Ukrainian forces still outnumbered by the Russians on the battlefield, the line between masterstroke and miscalculation is a fine one.<\/p>\n The Russian rouble was down 2.5% against the dollar on Friday, with traders telling AFP news agency that Ukraine\u2019s Kursk offensive was one of the reasons behind the fall. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/bbcx\/grey-placeholder.png\")
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