Russia declares emergency in border region under attack by Ukrainian forces

Russia declared the situation in the Kursk region a "federal level" emergency and sent reinforcements there on Friday, four days after hundreds of Ukrainian troops poured over the border in what appeared to be Kyiv's biggest attack on Russian soil since war between the two countries began in 2022.

Meanwhile, a Russian plane-launched missile slammed into a Ukrainian shopping mall in the middle of the day, killing at least 12people and wounding 44others, authorities said.

The mall in Kostiantynivka, in the eastern Donetsk region, is located in the town's residential area. Thick black smoke rose above it after the strike.

"This is another targeted attack on a crowded place, another act of terror by the Russians," Donetsk regional head Vadym Filashkin said in a post on the Telegram messaging service.

It was the second major strike on the town in almost a year. Last September, a Russian missile hit an outdoor market there, killing 17.

Thousands flee fighting in Kursk, Russia says

Russia's Defence Ministry said reinforcements were on their way to the Kursk region to counter Ukraine's daring cross-border incursion. Russia is deploying multiple rocket launchers, towed artillery guns, tanks transported on trailers and heavy tracked vehicles, the RIA-Novosti new agency said, citing the ministry.

"The operational situation in the Kursk region remains difficult," Alexei Smirnov,Kursk's acting governor,said on Telegram.

The DefenceMinistry reported fighting in the western outskirts of Sudzha, about 10 kilometres from the border with Ukraine. The town has an important pipeline transit hub for Russian natural gas.

Social services and civic associations are providing assistance to people forced to flee their homes by the fighting, Smirnov said. The last Russian figure for evacuations in Kursk was 3,000.

Little reliable information about the surprise Ukrainian operation has emerged, and its strategic aims are unclear. Ukrainian officials have refused to comment specifically about the incursion, which is taking place about 500 kilometres southwest of Moscow.

But a top adviser to UkrainianPresident Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday that border region attacks will cause Russia to "start to realize that the war is slowly creeping inside of Russian territory." Mykhailo Podolyak also suggested that the operation would improve Kyiv's hand in the event of negotiations with Moscow.

Mathieu Boulgue, a defence analyst at Chatham House, a think-tank in London, said the Ukrainians appear to have a clear goal in mind, even if they're not saying what it is.

"Such a co-ordinated ground force movement responds to a clear military objective, yet unknown, that requires extreme operational security," Boulgue told The Associated Press.

At the same time, the raid spooks the Russian public and delivers a slap in the face to Russian President Vladimir Putin, offering Ukraine "a great PR coup," he said, adding that the attack "is a massive symbol, a massive display of force [showing]that the war is not frozen, the war is coming to you."

The assault came as the Ukrainian army toils to hold at bay an intense Russian push at places on the front line in eastern Ukraine, especially in the Donetsk region. Putin has made it clear he wants to capture the parts of Donetsk that the Kremlin's forces don't already occupy.

Ukraine pulls off'operational surprise'

Russia declares federal level emergencies when there are more than 500 victims or damage exceeds 500 million rubles (about $8million Cdn).

The Kursk fighting has earned considerable attention in Russian media, at the top of news websites and state television news broadcasts.

State TV channel Rossiya-1 devoted thefirst 10 minutes of its 11 a.m. newscast on Friday to various aspects of the situation. There wasn't any reporting from the front, but the newscast led with video from the Russian Defence Ministry purportedly showing the destruction of Ukrainian military vehicles and a howitzer.

Much of the coverage was about the humanitarian situation children being taken to shelters aboard buses, people in other regions gathering food and diapers and other supplies to be sent to Kursk.

The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think-tank, says Ukrainian forces have pressed on with their "rapid advances" deeper into the Kursk region, reportedly going up to 35 kilometresbeyond the border.

"The lack of a coherent Russian response to the Ukrainian incursion into Kursk ... and the reported rate of Ukrainian advance indicates that Ukrainian forces were able to achieve operational surprise," the institutesaid late Thursday.

A Russian Defence Ministry statement on Friday said only that the military "continues to repel the attempted invasion" and is responding with airstrikes, artillery and troops on the ground.

It claimed the Ukrainian armed forces have lost 945 soldiers and 102 armoured vehicles, including 12 tanks, in the assault. The claim that couldn't be independently verified.

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Russian military airfield hit

Ukraine has also kept up its strategy of hitting rear areas with long-range drones, targeting military sites, oil refineries and other infrastructure.

Ukrainian drones attacked Russia's Lipetsk region, which is about 300 kilometres from the Ukraine border, during Thursday night, authorities said.

Drones operated by Ukraine's Security Service hit a military airfield there, a security official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

The airfield was a base for fighter jets and helicopters and more than 700 powerful glide bombs in storage,the source said.

Ukraine's Army General Staff also confirmed the strike on Lipetsk-2 airfield Friday morning, saying it was used as a base for multiple Su-34, Su-35 and MiG-31 jets.

The Russian Defence Ministry said that 75 Ukrainian drones were shot down during the night, 19 of them over Lipetsk.