Russia strikes back at Ukrainian forces in Kursk region
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A Ukrainian soldier loads a shell in a self-propelled howitzer in the Donetsk region in Ukraine.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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MOSCOW – Russian forces on Aug 13 hit back at Ukrainian troops with missiles, drones and air strikes in actions that one senior commander said have halted Ukraine’s advance.
Thousands of Ukrainian soldiers smashed through the Russian border
Ukraine’s forces carved out a slice of Russian territory
Russian war bloggers reported intense battles across the Kursk front as the Ukrainians tried to expand their control, though they said Russia was bringing in soldiers and heavy weaponry and had repelled many Ukrainian attacks.
Russia’s defence ministry published images of Sukhoi Su-34 bombers striking at what it said were Ukrainian troops in the Kursk border region and said it had repelled attacks at villages about 26km to 28km from the border.
Russian forces destroyed a total of 35 Ukrainian tanks, 31 armoured personnel carriers, 18 infantry fighting vehicles and 179 other armoured vehicles in the week-long battle, it said.
“The uncontrolled ride of the enemy has already been halted,” said Major-General Apti Alaudinov, commander of the Chechen Akhmat special forces unit. “The enemy is already aware that the blitzkrieg that it planned did not work out.”
It was not clear which side was in control of the Russian town of Sudzha, through which Russia delivers gas from Western Siberia through Ukraine and on to Slovakia and other European Union countries. Gazprom said on Aug 13 it was still pumping gas to Ukraine through Sudzha.
Kursk’s acting governor, Mr Alexei Smirnov, said on Aug 12 that Ukraine controlled 28 settlements in the region, and the incursion was about 12km deep and 40km wide. Ukraine claimed it controlled 1,000 sq km of Russia, more than double what the Russian figures indicate.
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Western leaders said they would help Ukraine defeat Russian troops on the battlefield and drive them out.
Ukraine recaptured large swathes of territory in 2022. But its counter-offensive in 2023 failed to pierce heavily dug-in Russian lines, and Russian forces have been advancing deeper into Ukrainian territory.
Russia controls just under a fifth of territory internationally recognised as Ukraine.
Ukrainian troops carry a dead Russian soldier at a border crossing near Sudzha in Russia on Aug 12.
PHOTO: NYTIMES
At his Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, Mr Putin told officials Russia would force out the Ukrainian troops, saying Russian forces were speeding up their advance along other parts of the front.
Still, the foreign occupation of Russian land was an embarrassment for the army and Mr Putin.
The Ukrainian incursion is the most serious into Russia since the June 1941 invasion by Nazi Germany, which turned on the 1943 Battle of Kursk.
President Volodymyr Zelensky told Ukrainians in his nightly address that the operation in Russia was a matter of Ukrainian security
But by dedicating forces to Kursk, Ukraine may leave other parts of the front exposed just as Russia has been advancing. Russia, which has a far larger army, could try to encircle Ukrainian forces.
Ukraine’s Western backers, which have been keen to avoid an escalation of the war into a direct confrontation between Russia and the US-led NATO, said they had no prior warning of the Ukrainian offensive.
Mr Putin said the West was using Ukraine to fight a proxy war with Russia and the border incursion was an attempt to undermine Russian domestic stability.
Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service said Mr Zelensky was taking crazy steps that risked an escalation far beyond Ukraine’s borders.
In Kursk, 121,000 people have already left or have been evacuated and another 59,000 are in the process of being evacuated.
In Russia’s Belgorod region, which borders Kursk, 11,000 civilians have also been evacuated, the region’s governor said. REUTERS
