“Thousands” of military personnel are taking part in the ongoing Ukrainian invasion of Russia’s Kursk region, a senior Ukrainian official said. While Moscow assured for its part that it has now “stopped” the advance deeper into the territory of the Kiev units.
In a statement, the Russian Ministry of Defense said it prevented “attempts to penetrate” Russian defense lines by Ukrainian “armored” units near the communities of Talpino, Zhuravli and Obsi Kalodez, about thirty kilometers in a straight line from Russia’s border with Ukraine .
The ministry explained that raids by Ukrainian forces were thwarted by aircraft, drone and artillery bombardment. At the same time, they stopped the deployment of reserves of the “northern” formation, which operates in the Ukrainian region of Kharkiv (northeast).
The Russian military also claims to have hit Ukrainian troops with missiles and artillery near the communities of Suncha, Kareneva, Staragia Sarochitsa and Borki. But that also prevented an advance to Bielowski, further east.
The attack of Ukraine
After months of retreat on the eastern front, Ukrainian troops on Tuesday launched an unprecedented wide-scale incursion into Russia’s border region of Kursk, where analysts say they have seized several communities.
“The purpose is to overextend the enemy’s positions. Let’s get him the maximum losses. To destabilize the situation in Russia (…) and to transfer the war to Russian territory,” a Ukrainian official told AFP on Saturday night, without being named.
He assured that “thousands” of Ukrainian military personnel are participating in this operation.
The governor of Kursk, Alexei Smirnov, acknowledged on Sunday that the situation remains “difficult”. After a week of fighting has now passed.
For his part, Ramzan Kadyrov, who rules in Chechnya, said on Sunday that a unit of Chechen fighters took action in the Kursk region. The Chechens are considered to be among the most barbaric and hard-nosed in the entire country.
The image in Kursk
AFP journalists saw dozens of Ukrainian armored vehicles on the streets of the Ukrainian region of Sumy (north), which neighbors Kursk.
The vehicles, of various types, carry a white triangle, apparently used to identify the forces taking part in the attack.
After days of silence about the operation, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke on Saturday night for the first time publicly in his speech about it. Saying that Kiev seeks to “take the war to the aggressor’s territory”.
Moscow has sent reinforcements and imposed an “anti-terrorist” operation in three regions bordering Ukraine, including Kursk.
On Saturday, it announced that it had hurriedly evacuated more than 76,000 people from the area threatened by the incursion to “safe locations”. Ukraine, for its part, ordered the hasty evacuation of at least 20,000 civilians from the Sumy region.
Fire in the cooling tower of the nuclear power plant in Zaporizhia
In Ukraine, a fire broke out on Sunday night in a cooling tower of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant. The tower is under the control of the Russian armed forces. The two warring sides blamed each other for the incident. The International Atomic Energy Agency said for its part that it had been informed that “there is no impact on nuclear safety”.
At the same time, he once again criticized the “irresponsible attacks”, which “increase the risk of a nuclear accident”.
The head of the authorities stationed in Zaporizhia by Russia, Vladimir Rogov, assured early on Monday that the fire in the cooling tower of the reactors was “completely extinguished”.
The chronicle of the war
Russian troops invaded Ukrainian territory in February 2022 and have been on the offensive ever since. Having taken over large areas in the eastern and southern parts of the country, Ukrainian cities are pounded daily with artillery, missiles and drones.
According to the Ukrainian official who spoke to AFP, the Ukrainian invasion was initially intended to divert Russian forces from Ukraine’s Kharkiv region and Donbass (eastern Ukraine). In order to ease the pressure on the forces trying to stop the Russian advance.
Russian units have superior weapons and numerical advantage there. But, at least for now, the goal of changing the situation on the eastern front has not been achieved, he admitted.
“Their pressure on the eastern front continues, they have not withdrawn their troops from this zone”, although “the intensity” of the Russian attacks “has decreased a little”.
The invasion “caught the Russians asleep” and “really boosted our morale, the Ukrainian army, the state and society,” he continued.
Sooner or later Russia will “stop” the advance of Ukrainian units in the Kursk region. But if after some time “they have not taken back these lands, they may be used for political purposes”, he added. Implying, that this will be useful, if peace negotiations are held,
He also said Moscow was preparing a massive missile strike against “decision-making centers” in retaliation for the Ukrainian invasion. Ukraine’s Western allies had been informed in advance, as he emphasizes.
Given that “Western weaponry is actively used” in the operation, “our Western partners were indirectly involved in its planning,” the Ukrainian official explained.
He assured that the Ukrainian troops involved are complying with international humanitarian law. Kiev does not intend to annex the zones it has seized at this stage, he concluded.
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