The clashes extended as far as the outskirts of Sudzha, a town of some 5,000 people about 10 kilometres from the border in the Russian region of Kursk.

Some 300 Ukrainian soldiers conducted an incursion across the border into Russia, engaging in combat inside Moscow’s territory on Tuesday, according to the Kremlin’s claims.

Members of Ukraine’s 22nd mechanised brigade launched an attack between the border villages of Nikolayevo-Daryino and Oleshnya in the Kursk region of Russia, supported by “11 tanks and more than 20 armoured fighting vehicles,” the Russian defence ministry said.

The clashes extended as far as the outskirts of Sudzha, a town of some 5,000 people about 10 kilometres from the border near Ukraine’s region of Sumy.