The Russian military deployed additional forces to fight invading Ukrainian troops in the southwestern Kursk region, Defense Ministry-affiliated media reported Friday.
The Zvezda broadcaster shared videos of several army trucks and other military vehicles on a highway crossing into the Kursk region.
“The marching columns include [BM-21] Grad multiple rocket launcher combat vehicles, tanks transported on trailers, towed artillery, heavy tracked vehicles, as well as Ural and Kamaz vehicles,” Zvezda said.
Citing the Russian Defense Ministry, the broadcaster added that the columns were moving to “build up forces that are engaged in active combat with Ukrainian militants in the Sudzhansky district.”
The independent investigative outlet Agentstvo said it was able to identify through road signs that at least one column had arrived from the neighboring Belgorod region and another from the Russian-occupied Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.
Ukrainian troops crossed over the Russian border early Tuesday, advancing deeper into the Kursk region over the ensuing days despite claims from Russian authorities that they were successfully repelling the attack.
Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed earlier Friday that it had killed 945 Ukrainian troops and destroyed more than 100 armored vehicles since the incursion began. Officials said up to 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been originally deployed in the surprise incursion.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Telegram that its Su-25 and Su-34 fighter jets attacked Ukrainian troops and military equipment in the Kursk region.
Meanwhile, pro-war military bloggers published an unverified video earlier on Friday of what they said was a Russian military convoy that was destroyed by Ukrainian forces northwest of the town of Sudzha, which has borne the brunt of the fighting.
Russia’s military has not commented on its equipment losses or its own casualties in the four days of clashes.
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