Operation in Kursk region: ISW notes discrepancies between Russia's Defense Ministry and local authorities

This was reported by the Institute for the Study of War.

On August 6, the Russian Ministry of Defense and the Federal Security Service of Russia (FSB) said that Russian border troops and special services repelled several raids by Ukrainian forces equipped with about a battalion-sized number of tanks and armored vehicles.

According to them, Ukrainian forces were allegedly advancing on Russian positions near Nikolayevo-Darino and Oleshnya in the Kursk region. Instead, geolocation footage from August 6 shows damaged and abandoned armored vehicles about 7 kilometers north of the international border west of Lyubimovka.

In addition, Russian propagandists claim that the footage shows Ukrainian vehicles, but ISW cannot confirm whether the armored vehicles are Russian, Ukrainian or both. 

Later, Alexei Smirnov and several Russian milbloggers warned that fighting was ongoing in the border areas of the Sudzhansky and Korenevsky districts of Kursk region. These reports differed from the statements of the Russian Defense Ministry and the FSB.

• On August 6, the authorities of Russia's Kursk region stated that the Ukrainian Armed Forces allegedly tried to break through the Russian border, but were allegedly repelled. Later, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported that "the Ukrainian subversive group retreated to its territory."