Russia to respond promptly, harshly to future incursions: defense minister

Russia will respond quickly and extremely harshly to future incursions, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said at a meeting with senior defense officials on Wednesday, reported Xinhua.

The minister mentioned that "a Ukrainian nationalist formation" that broke into Russia's Belgorod region on Monday was defeated.

"Russia will keep responding to such actions of Ukrainian militants promptly and harshly," Shoigu said.

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Tuesday that "more than 70 Ukrainian nationalists were killed during a counter-terrorist operation," and Russian forces were able to push the "remaining nationalists" back into Ukraine, where they were further eliminated.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that Russia was "deeply concerned" about the incursion.

Ukraine has stated that the incursion was carried out by two anti-government paramilitary groups in Russia, adding that it was not responsible for the incident.

Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said Wednesday that there had been a large number of drone attacks on the region overnight, adding that most of them were repelled.

In a Telegram post, Gladkov said that the attacks damaged residential and administrative buildings, and that no casualties were reported.