Ukraine denies Russian claims of thwarted attempt to invade Belgorod Oblast — here’s what we know

Russia’s Defense Ministry on March 18 said it had stopped a significant Ukrainian ground assault from entering Russia’s Belgorod Oblast, a claim Kyiv swiftly dismissed as a propaganda effort.

The Belgorod settlements named by Russian officials as the site of the alleged thwarted operation lie only a few dozen kilometers southeast of Sudzha, where Ukraine has almost fully retreated from the land it captured last August in the adjacent Kursk Oblast.

The Kyiv Independent was not able to independently verify either party’s claim. Here’s what we know about the situation.

Russia claims five attacks thwarted

Russia’s Defense Ministry made its claims shortly after a phone call between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump, in which Putin agreed to halt attacks on energy infrastructure but rejected an outright ceasefire with Ukraine.

US President Donald Trump (Center L) and Russia's President Vladimir Putin (Center R) at Finland's Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland on July 16, 2018. (Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty Images)

The Defense Ministry framed the alleged attacks as a Ukrainian attempt to discredit peace initiatives. It said the attacks involved up to 200 soldiers and were targeted at the settlements of Demidovka and Prilesye.

"A total of five attacks were carried out by the enemy during the day," the ministry said. "No crossing of the state border of the Russian Federation was allowed."

Several Russian military bloggers also reported the claims of a failed Ukrainian cross-border attempt.

Belgorod Oblast authorities have repeatedly accused Ukraine of launching attacks against the region throughout the full-scale war.

In 2023, Ukrainian-aligned militia groups carried out a series of temporary raids into Belgorod Oblast.

Ukraine counters that Russia wants to paint Kyiv as uncooperative

Andrii Kovalenko, the head of the counter-disinformation department at Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, rejected Russia’s claims in a post on Telegram.

Border battles using artillery have been happening "almost constantly" throughout the full-scale invasion, Kovalenko wrote, adding the latest claim was a propaganda effort to paint Ukraine as uncooperative in peace efforts.

"It’s not surprising that it’s now very beneficial for the Russians to pump up the air before Trump’s conversation with Putin. Their main information strategy is to accuse Ukraine of unwillingness to end the war, although in reality, they are attacking from the front, as well as from the air," he wrote.

"And it is Putin who is dragging his feet with Trump's proposal for a ceasefire."

At a press conference, however, Zelensky neither confirmed nor denied Ukrainian operations in Belgorod Oblast when directly asked about Russia’s claims.

"Ukraine is fulfilling its mission in the Kursk region," he said.

"We have seen a new concentration of troops on the border with Sumy Oblast. We can see what they want to do — they want to strike Sumy, Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia oblasts. That is what we are seeing. Well, we will not let them do it so easily," Zelensky said.

A 'complex situation' at the Sumy border

The claims added to mounting tensions in Ukraine’s Sumy Oblast, which borders Russia’s Belgorod, Kursk, and Bryansk oblasts.

On March 15, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia is amassing forces at the Sumy border to prepare for a new attack.

Hours after the phone call with Trump in which Putin agreed to stop targeting energy infrastructure for 30 days, two hospitals within Sumy Oblast were among targets struck by Russian drones.

In response, Zelensky said the attacks were evidence that "Putin de facto rejected the proposal for a complete ceasefire."

Residents in Sumy’s vulnerable border communities experience multiple attacks per day. With the situation at the border escalating, Sumy Oblast’s Defense Council expanded mandatory evacuations last week to include eight settlements in Sumy covering over 500 people.

Soldiers near a military vehicle in Khotin, Sumy Oblast, Ukraine, on Sept. 13, 2024, amid the Russia-Ukraine war. (Andre Alves / Anadolu via Getty Images)

In Russia, the governor of Belgorod Oblast, Vyacheslav Gladkov, acknowledged on March 18 that the situation in his region was "complex."

In a video message on Telegram, he said that villages in the Krasnaya Yaruga district — the region named by Russia’s Defense Ministry as the site of Ukraine’s attempted land attacks — had come under heavy shelling and drone strikes. In 24 hours, it had been attacked by 49 drones, 12 of which were intercepted, he claimed.

His message did not include claims of an attempt at a cross-border incursion.