Ukraine pierces Russian border, triggering major battles

MOSCOW - Russia said on Aug 7 that it was fighting intense battles against Ukrainian forces which had penetrated its Kursk region in one of the largest incursions into Russia since the Ukraine war began in February 2022.

Russia has advanced in 2024 after the failure of Ukraine’s 2023 counteroffensive to achieve any major gains, and has taken 420 sq km of territory from Ukrainian forces since June 14, Mr Sergei Shoigu, head of Russia’s security council, has said.

Ukraine struck back on Aug 6 and the battles continued through the night into Aug 7 as Ukrainian forces pushed to the north-west of the border town of Sudzha, 530km south-west of Moscow, Russia’s defence ministry said.

“The Kyiv regime has launched another major provocation,” President Vladimir Putin told members of the Russian government about the Kursk attack.

Mr Putin said Ukrainian forces were firing “indiscriminately” at a range of civilian targets in the region, and said that he would shortly have a meeting with top defence ministry and Federal Security Service officials.

Both Kyiv and Moscow say they do not target civilians in the war, triggered by Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Russian Telegram channels carried unverified footage of shelled houses.

Mr Alexei Smirnov, the acting governor of the Kursk region, said there were casualties but gave no exact toll, and called on citizens to donate blood.

He said a Ukrainian attack drone had hit an ambulance outside the town, killing the driver and a paramedic and wounding a doctor.

Sudzha is the last operational trans-shipping point for Russian gas exports to Europe via Ukraine. Just 60km away to the north-east is Russia’s Kursk nuclear power station.

Ukraine has not commented on the events. Russia sent reserves to help shore up Russian defences.

Crucial juncture

The battles around Sudzha come at a crucial juncture in the war: Ukraine is losing territory and Kyiv is deeply concerned that US support could drop off if Donald Trump wins the November election in the United States.

Trump has said he would end the war, so both Russia and Ukraine are keen to gain the strongest possible bargaining position on the battlefield while pinning down Russian forces and showing the West that it can still mount major battles.

Mr Shoigu said on Aug 6 that the window for peace was narrowing and that the longer it took for Kyiv to begin to talk about terms, the costlier the peace would be for the Ukrainian people.

Russian military bloggers reported intense battles and said Ukraine had penetrated about 10-15km inside the Russian border.

“The fighting will be fierce,” said Mr Yuri Podolyaka, an influential Ukrainian-born pro-Russian military blogger. “It’s definitely not going to end quickly.”

“Even if the enemy fails to break through (and no one will give guarantees for now), there will be artillery attacks and drone attacks. And in large numbers.”

A senior Orthodox clergyman said Ukrainian shelling had set ablaze a cathedral and other buildings within a large monastery outside Sudzha, but no one was hurt.

The defence ministry said that it was continuing to fight Ukrainian units “in the areas of the Kursk region directly adjacent to the Russian-Ukrainian border”.

It said the fighting was continuing, adding that Russian forces had destroyed Ukrainian armour, including seven tanks. REUTERS