10/08/2024 – 13:10
Russia’s Kursk region has been the scene of fighting after a surprise incursion by Ukrainian troops caught the Russians off guard. The Kremlin says it managed to halt the advance on Saturday. The Russian government has evacuated more than 76,000 residents from border areas in the Kursk region that have been the scene of a surprise incursion by Ukrainian troops, the state news agency Tass reported on Saturday (10/08). The Kremlin also said it managed to halt the advance of Ukrainian troops, who have penetrated several kilometers into Russian territory since Tuesday, but fighting continued at the start of the weekend.
Local reports said fighting was ongoing in three villages more than 10 kilometers (6 miles) inside Russian territory — Ivashkovskoye, Malaya Loknya and Olgovka. In a statement early Saturday, the Russian Defense Ministry said it had “thwarted attempts by enemy mobile groups to reach deep into Russian territory.”
Russia’s internal security agency, the FSB, has also imposed a “counterterrorism” regime in Kursk and two neighboring regions, Bryansk and Belgorod, giving authorities broad powers to blockade the area and impose controls on communications.
The Kursk incursion is Kiev’s most significant attack on Russia since Moscow launched its war of aggression against the neighboring country in February 2022. The Ukrainian incursion appears to have caught Russian forces off guard.
According to the Russian Army, around 1,000 soldiers and more than two dozen Ukrainian armored vehicles and tanks are taking part in the raid.
Ukraine has not officially claimed responsibility, but President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday that Russians were now facing the consequences of the war the Kremlin started. “Russia brought war to our country and must feel its effects,” he said, without directly mentioning the incursion.
Ukrainians penetrated at least 20 km into Russia
Ukrainian advances north and west of the city of Sudzha in Russia’s Kursk border region amount to 20 kilometers, not 35 kilometers as initially indicated in some reports, the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported on Saturday in a new analysis of the operation on Russian territory.
While the advances may be lower than initially estimated, ISW, an American think tank specializing in military issues, estimates that the Ukrainians reached areas near Snagost Korenevo and Malaya Lokhnya, west and north of Sudzha, while to the east they were fighting at Plekhovo and Dmitriukov.
Although a video showing Ukrainian soldiers near the center of Sudzha was released on Friday night, ISW has not been able to confirm whether the city is fully under Ukrainian control.
Analysts believe that Russia is reluctant to transfer forces from the front in the Donetsk region of occupied Ukraine. Most reports suggest that Russia is so far relying on conscripts and irregular forces to counter the Ukrainian incursion. However, some units from the front, especially from the Kharkiv region, may have been moved. According to ISW, it may take several days before their arrival in Kursk is confirmed.
Some of the Russian reinforcements suffered from Ukrainian fire and it was confirmed that 14 military vehicles were destroyed on Friday near Rilsk.
jps (Reuters, EFE, ots)
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