(Kyiv) The Russian counter-offensive to retake areas of the Kursk region under Ukrainian control has been halted, the spokesman for the Ukrainian regional command told AFP on Wednesday, specifying that “several thousand” Russian civilians were in this area.
The Russians “tried to attack from the flanks, but they were stopped, the situation stabilized and today everything is under control,” said the spokesman, Oleksiy Dmytrachkivsky.
Faced with Russian invasion for two and a half years and under pressure for months in eastern Ukraine, Ukrainian forces launched a surprise attack on August 6 in the Russian border region of Kursk, taking Moscow by surprise and seizing several hundred square kilometers and dozens of localities.
The Russian army announced on September 12 that it had regained ground by launching a counter-offensive in the region.
“They have achieved some minor successes, but this success has now turned into a virtual encirclement for them,” Dmytrachkivsky said. “The Russians entered one locality. They started fighting for another locality, but that’s all.”
The spokesman also said that “several thousand” Russian civilians were still in Ukrainian-controlled territory.
“In some places there are more than a hundred people,” in others “more than two hundred, more than five hundred,” he said.
These are mostly elderly people, but there are also children, said Dmytrachkivsky, who said that one woman had given birth to a “healthy” boy in the territory.
He also accused the Russian army of launching airstrikes, including using gliding bombs, against the area controlled by Ukrainian troops, reporting at least “23 civilians killed” since the end of August. AFP is not able to confirm the veracity of this information.
The spokesman denied any mistreatment of civilians by Ukrainian military personnel.
“They receive water, food, bread, the military does not offend them,” he said, adding that shops and pharmacies were not operating.
In a statement, the Russian army assured that it was on the offensive in some areas of the Kursk region, and was repelling Ukrainian attacks in others.
This Ukrainian incursion into Russian territory, the first by a foreign army since the Second World War, constitutes a snub for Vladimir Putin.