On Tuesday, the MoD said that Ukrainian forces had launched an offensive to seize territory in the Kursk region in western Russia.
On Wednesday, Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov said Russia’s air, missile and artillery strikes had prevented about 1,000 Ukrainian troops from advancing deep into Russian territory.
The Russian armed forces will retaliate against the regime in Kiev for its barbaric attacks on the western Russian regions, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Sunday.
"We strongly condemn these barbaric terror acts.... We have no doubt that the organizers and perpetrators of these crimes, as well as their foreign sponsors, will be held accountable. A harsh response from the Russian armed forces will not take long," she said.
The spokeswoman said the missile and drone attacks launched by Ukraine at Russian regions in the past few days were aimed at destroying civilian infrastructure and killing civilians and were "clearly terrorist in nature."
"The regime in Kiev continues its acts of terrorism with the sole purpose of intimidating civilians in Russia. It understands perfectly well that these barbaric acts are pointless from the military viewpoint but continues to work off the loans issued by its masters," she said.
The Foreign Ministry again called on international organizations to condemn the terrorist attacks by Ukrainian militants, although Zakharova said she was confident that "shamefaced silence" would be their only response.
RHM/PR