Authorities in Russia’s western Lipetsk region declared a state of emergency and evacuated four villages in the early hours of Friday morning after a “massive attack” by Ukrainian drones, the local governor said, as Kyiv’s forces continue their push into Russian territory.
The drones struck an energy infrastructure facility and disrupted power supplies, Lipetsk Governor Igor Artamonov said on Telegram, adding that Russia’s air defense systems had intercepted 19 drones in the region, and nine people had been injured. Russian state media reported that a fire had broken out at a military airfield in the area.
The Lipetsk attack came as Ukrainian troops continued pushing into Russian territory in the Kursk region, as Kyiv seeks to use the surprise incursion to disrupt, divert and demoralize Russia two-and-a-half years after it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Fierce battles continued in the region Friday morning, despite Russia’s Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov claiming on Thursday that Moscow’s forces had halted the incursion.
While not mentioning Kursk or Lipetsk, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late Thursday that Moscow should be made to “feel” the consequences of its aggression against Ukraine. “Russia brought the war to our land, and it should feel what it has done,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly address.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak was more direct in justifying the Ukrainian incursions into Russian territory. “The root cause of any escalation, shelling, military actions, forced evacuation and destruction of normal life forms, including within [Russia’s] own territories like Kursk and Belgorod regions, is solely Russia’s unequivocal aggression,” Podolyak said in a post on X.
Russian President Vladimir Putin held a videoconference call with Alexei Smirnov, the acting governor of the Kursk region, with the Kremlin readout published late Thursday afternoon noting that an evacuation of the area was continuing. “You and I planned to hold today’s meeting in person, but circumstances have developed such that you, of course, need to stay in place,” Putin told Smirnov, according to the Kremlin’s account.
Russia’s Ministry for Emergencies on Friday declared the situation in the Kursk region a “federal level” emergency.
On Friday, Moscow’s defense ministry reported it had intercepted 75 Ukrainian drones in multiple Russian regions overnight.
The Washington Post reported that Ukraine’s forces had seized control of the Sudzha gas metering station in the Kursk region, the transit point for Russian gas flows through Ukraine to the EU.
While Kyiv has yet to comment on the matter, Ukrainian MP Oleksiy Goncharenko appeared to confirm the report, writing on Telegram: “Our guys heroically captured Putin’s main gas valve in Sudzha.”
Meanwhile, Russian forces hit a Ukrainian shopping mall with a plane-launched missile around midday Friday, killing at least nine people and injuring 26, authorities said. The mall in Kostiantynivka, in the eastern Donetsk region, is located in a residential area.