Ukraine Launches Attack on Belgorod Region, Pro-Kremlin Sources Say

Ukrainian forces launched an attack on border posts in the southwestern Belgorod region, Telegram channels linked to Russian security services said Tuesday, as regional officials reported an attempt “to break through the border.”

The Mash Telegram channel reported that around 200 Ukrainian soldiers were deployed near the Nekhoteyevka checkpoint and another 300 near the Shebekino checkpoint, where they were allegedly fired on by Russian border guards.

Shot, an anonymously run Telegram channel with alleged Kremlin ties, claimed the attack on Nekhoteyevka was repelled but disputed Mash’s account of fighting in Shebekino. Instead, Shot alleged that Russian forces crossed into the Ukrainian town of Vovchansk in the neighboring Kharkiv region.

Belgorod region Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov confirmed that “the enemy is trying to break through the border” but sought to downplay the threat.

“According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the situation on the border remains difficult but controlled,” Gladkov wrote on Telegram. He later reported Ukrainian attacks on three border villages, including shelling in Petrovka, less than 10 kilometers from Nekhoteyevka.

Russia’s Defense Ministry has yet to comment on the reported border clashes, stating only that air defense systems had shot down multiple drones over the Belgorod region overnight and in the morning.

Kyiv has also not commented on the reports. However, Ukrainian officials similarly did not acknowledge an Aug. 6 incursion into the neighboring Kursk region until several days later.

Ukrainian forces in Nekhoteyevka were “about the same in terms of personnel and numbers as in the first minutes of the Kursk incursion,” the Kremlin-funded broadcaster RT quoted the military Telegram channel Voyennaya Khronika as saying.

It was not immediately possible to verify those claims.