After days of silence, Ukraine has outlined the goals behind its ground incursion into Russian territory that began six days ago.
A senior Ukrainian official, in an interview with Agence France-Presse on the sixth day of the surprise attack, said the incursion into Russia’s Kursk region was aimed at “dispersing” Moscow’s forces and “destabilizing” the situation in Russia.
Moscow vowed to respond to this incursion.
For its part, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that it had “thwarted attempts” by Ukrainian soldiers to use armored vehicles to achieve “a penetration deep into Russian territory.”
The ministry said it targeted Ukrainian units in villages 25 and 30 kilometres from the Russian-Ukrainian border.
After months of retreat on the eastern front, Ukraine launched an unprecedented large-scale operation on Tuesday in the Russian border region of Kursk, allowing its forces to advance and take control of several locations.
“We are on the offensive. The goal is to disperse the enemy’s positions, inflict maximum losses and destabilize the situation in Russia, because they are unable to protect their borders, and to transfer the battle to Russian territory,” said the Ukrainian security official, who preferred to remain anonymous.
The Russian military announced on Wednesday that Ukraine had sent 1,000 soldiers to take part in the incursion that caught Moscow by surprise.
“There are more than that,” the Ukrainian official commented, estimating their number at “thousands.”
On Sunday morning, the Russian Defense Ministry published new photos that it said showed an airstrike on a Ukrainian armored convoy in the Kursk region, and the destruction of a tank.
– “Transfer of War”
After days of relatively low-key comment from Ukrainian authorities, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the operation for the first time in his daily address on Saturday evening, saying that Kyiv was seeking to “take the fight” to Russia.
To counter this attack, Russia sent reinforcements and began an “operation” in three regions bordering Ukraine, including Kursk.
Yesterday, Saturday, it announced the evacuation of more than 76,000 people living in the incursion area.
Ukraine, for its part, has requested the evacuation of at least 20,000 civilians from the Sumy region, located opposite the Kursk region.
On Sunday, reporters in the Sumy region saw dozens of armored vehicles bearing the white triangle that appears to be the mark identifying Ukrainian military equipment used in the operation.
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