Mass fires reported in Rylsk in Kursk Oblast

Editor's Note: This is a developing story and is being updated.

Strong explosions and fires were reported in the town of Rylsk in Kursk Oblast overnight on Aug. 9, Russian-affiliated Telegram channels reported.

Residents allegedly heard four explosions in the village of Stepanovka. The cause of the explosion is not yet known.

Ukrainian forces crossed the border into Kursk Oblast on Aug. 6, resulting in clashes on Russian soil.

Russia's Defense Ministry claimed on Aug. 8 that its forces were fighting Ukrainian troops in two districts near the border with Ukraine.

Putin described the incursion as a "large-scale provocation" and claimed that Ukrainian soldiers were carrying out attacks on civilian infrastructure. The Kyiv Independent could not independently verify the Russian government's claims.

Kursk Oblast lies on the border with Ukraine's Sumy Oblast, which has been experiencing daily attacks since Ukraine pushed Russian troops out of the region and back across the border in April 2022. The two regions share a 245-kilometer (152-mile) border.

"Russia brought war to our land, and it should feel what it has done," President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his evening address on Aug. 8, which avoided a direct mention of the ongoing fighting in Russia's Kursk Oblast.

Gerasimov ignored warnings of Ukrainian troop buildup near border, Bloomberg reports

Gerasimov and top officials “seemingly dismissed intelligence warnings that Ukrainian soldiers were gathering near the border with Russia’s western Kursk region as much as two weeks before they began the assault,” Bloomberg said.

The Kyiv IndependentElsa Court