kyiv, Ukraine.- Ukraine’s military said it used high-precision glide bombs provided by the United States to carry out attacks in Russia’s Kursk region, and claimed it had recaptured some territory in Ukraine’s eastern Kharkiv region where Russia had launched an offensive in the spring.
Ukrainian Air Force Commander Lt. Gen. Mykola Oleschuk released a video on Thursday evening purportedly showing the attack on a Russian base in the Kursk region. He said the attack using U.S.-supplied GBU-39 bombs caused Russian casualties and the destruction of equipment.
The video showed multiple explosions and plumes of smoke rising from the scene.
Separately, Ukraine’s 3rd Separate Assault Brigade reported that its forces advanced nearly 2 square kilometers (about three-quarters of a square mile) in the Kharkiv region. Details about the timing, scale and area of the offensive were not released, and it is difficult to predict whether it will have further impact on the battlefield.
Ukrainian forces have gained new momentum this month after delayed deliveries of US weapons were finally unblocked. kyiv launched an offensive in Russia’s western Kursk region on August 6, while stepping up drone attacks on military and fuel targets that sparked fires inside Russia this week.
Details of damage and injuries caused by some of the attacks were released on Friday.
A Ukrainian drone strike on a remote Russian air base in the Volgograd region caused significant damage to an airfield believed to be storing gliding bombs used by Moscow in the war, according to satellite images analyzed by The Associated Press on Friday.
Separately, an attack on a cargo ferry in the port of Kavkaz in Russia’s Krasnodar region on Thursday injured 13 people, Russia’s state news agency Tass reported Friday. Tass reported that four of the injured have been hospitalized and one other person remains missing, citing health officials.
Ukraine’s advances have reshaped the battlefield and boosted Ukrainian morale, two and a half years after Moscow launched an invasion that has caused mass death and destruction and created Europe’s biggest refugee crisis since World War II.
Ukraine and its Western allies hope that this new push will strengthen kyiv’s position on the diplomatic front.
A visit to kyiv by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is due to meet President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday, is drawing much attention. Ukrainians hope that Modi, who has maintained cordial ties and economic relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, can play a role in brokering a peace.
The incursion into Russia has exposed Russian vulnerabilities, but it has also stretched Ukrainian forces already fighting on a front line hundreds of miles long. It has potentially jeopardized Ukraine’s ability to contain Russian forces, which have been slowly but steadily gaining ground in the Donetsk region, by diverting Ukrainian forces that might otherwise reinforce the defense there.
It is unclear how long Ukraine will be able to hold on to the ground it has seized from Russia.
The Russian Defense Ministry said Friday that its troops had stopped Ukrainian attempts to advance on the towns of Borki and Malaya Loknya in the Kursk region. The ministry also reported eliminating a reconnaissance and sabotage group near Kamyshevka, 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of Sudzha, which the Ukrainians captured.
Ukraine’s 3rd Separate Assault Brigade said in a statement released Thursday evening that Ukrainian soldiers had taken control of an area previously held by a Russian battalion and some strongholds.
Brigade commander Andrii Biletskyi said they attacked superior Russian troops “and won,” adding that the ratio of forces on the battlefield was 2.5:1 in Moscow’s favor.
The Associated Press could not independently verify the claims, and there was no immediate comment from Russia.
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