Four officials in southwestern Russia’s Kursk region were wounded in a mine explosion early Friday, Governor Alexander Khinshtein said.
“This morning in the center of Rylsk, a vehicle carrying Rylsk District administration staff hit a mine,” Khinshtein wrote in a post on Telegram, referring to a town 35 kilometers (21.5 miles) from the border with northeastern Ukraine’s Sumy region.
“The explosive device was detonated remotely,” he added without elaborating.
Two of those wounded and hospitalized were identified as Rylsk District head Vladimir Kovalchuk and Sergei Besedin, the director of a municipal maintenance department. Both men were in the vehicle when the blast occurred, and Besedin required surgery.
The other two officials, whom Khinshtein identified only as the district’s head of culture and an emergency specialist, had been on the steps of the Ryslk administration building and suffered shrapnel wounds from the blast wave.
Khinshtein said they were hospitalized as well.
The governor said security forces cordoned off the area and bomb disposal squads were at the scene.
Ukrainian forces launched a surprise incursion into the Kursk region in August 2024 and took control of several districts. They were forced to retreat in early 2025 after Russian forces, backed by North Korean troops, launched a counteroffensive.
The Rylsky District did not come under Ukrainian occupation during the incursion.
Kursk region authorities said in early 2025 that it could take over a year to clear mines from the recaptured areas of the Kursk region.
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