Russian President Vladimir Putin has called the situation in the Kursk region a "large-scale provocation by the Kiev regime," which he said "is conducting indiscriminate shooting, including from missile weapons, at residential buildings and civilian infrastructure, as well as ambulances."
The statement came after the Russian Ministry of Defense stressed that Russia's air, missile and artillery strikes have prevented Ukrainian forces from advancing deep into Russian territory.
Kiev has already lost 200 soldiers and 50 armed vehicles, including seven tanks, during the incursion, according to the Ministry.
This followed the region's Acting Governor Aleksey Smirnov writing on his social media that the situation in the Kursk region, which "is heroically resisting attacks by Ukrainian [neo-] Nazis," is under control.
Several thousand people have left the shelling and combat zone over the past 24 hours, with more than 300 people, including over 120 children, being placed in temporary accommodation centers, Smirnov added.
At least five civilians have been killed and 24 more injured, including six children, as a result of Ukraine’s shelling, Russian Health Ministry spokesman Aleksey Kuznetsov, for his part, confirmed.
Russian security units, together with the border troops of the Federal Security Service, repelled the attacks and inflicted fire damage on Kiev's forces.
Head of the Russian Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin has meanwhile ordered the opening of a criminal case in connection with the attacks, while Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Sputnik that the shelling is "yet another terrorist attack aimed against civilians" from Kiev.