Residents evacuated, soldiers captured, towns won… What is the status of the Ukrainian army’s incursion into Russia?

Ukrainian troops have been in the Kursk region for a week now. They claim to have captured dozens of towns, while Russian authorities have announced that they are opening temporary shelters to accommodate people fleeing the fighting.

A coup that continues. It has been eight days since the Ukrainian army crossed the border into Russian territory and is holding positions there. kyiv claims to control 1,000 km2 of territory in the Kursk border area.In the neighboring Belgorod region, the governor finally declared a state of emergency on Wednesday, August 14. “The situation is extremely difficult and tense due to the shelling by the Ukrainian armed forces”Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram.

Since the start of its surprise operation on August 6, kyiv seized several dozen villages, forcing tens of thousands of Russian civilians to flee. The Ukrainian offensive in Russia is “legitimate” and will end if Moscow accepts a “just peace” and ends its invasion, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry promised on Tuesday.ranceinfo takes stock of thethe largest incursion by a foreign army onto Russian soil since the end of World War II.

More than 120,000 Russian civilians evacuated

According to Russian authorities in the Kursk region, the initial target of the offensive, the fighting and Ukrainian shelling had left at least 12 civilians dead and 121 wounded on Tuesday, including ten children. Its governor, Aleksei Smirnov, estimates the number of people killed at least 121,000. “left or evacuated”. Ua record in the country since the second Chechen war, more than twenty years ago.

In the neighboring Belgorod region, on the border with Kharkiv, smaller evacuations were reported. In a video released Tuesday, the governor local counted that“about 11,000 people” had already been evacuated.

In response, emergency aid has been delivered to the border area, and additional trains to Moscow have been arranged for people fleeing the fighting. The country’s Emergency Situations Ministry told the Russian state news agency Tass that more than 370 temporary accommodation centres in 54 regions of the country are ready to receive these residents. “The number of temporary accommodation centres in the Central, Volga, North-West and Ural regions should be increased. Each centre should provide decent living conditions, clean water, meals and basic necessities.”stressed Alexander Kurenkov, Minister of Emergency Situations, in a statement.

On the Ukrainian side, evacuations have also been ordered. In the Sumy region, which faces Kursk, at least 20,000 civilians have already fled or are about to leave.

kyiv claims to control 1,000 km2 of Russian territory

A week after the start of its offensive, kyiv claims to have conquered 1,000 km2 of territory in the Kursk region, which serves as a rear base for Moscow’s forces to wage war in eastern Ukraine. For its part, AFP reports an advance by Ukrainian troops in the 800 km2 region, based on Russian data compiled by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), an American think tank.

In his daily speech on Tuesday evening, Volodymyr Zelensky put forward the figure of 74 localities held by his troops and reported fighting “difficult and intense” in the area.

On the Russian side, the governor of the Kursk region acknowledged on Monday that the Ukrainians had seized an area 40 kilometers wide and 12 kilometers deep, reporting the fall of 28 localities. For comparison, Russia has advanced 1,360 km2 into Ukrainian territory since January 1, 2024, according to AFP calculations using ISW data.

Drones and missiles intercepted by Moscow

The Russian Defense Ministry reports on Telegram that its forces intercepted 117 drones and four missiles launched by Ukraine on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, over the regions of Kursk and Voronezh, without causing any casualties. Tuesday, the The ministry also claimed on its Telegram channel that it had “thwarted attempts by enemy mobile groups in armored vehicles to penetrate deep into Russian territory.”

However, kyiv is not seeking to “annex” Russian territories, says the spokesman of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry. “Unlike Russia, Ukraine does not need other people’s property. Ukraine does not want to annex any territory of the Kursk region, but it wants to protect the lives of its people, said Heorhii Tykhyi. The sooner Russia agrees to restore a just peace (…), the sooner the incursions of the Ukrainian defense forces into Russian territory will cease.”

Several hundred Russian servicemen have surrendered, according to kyiv

According to Moscow, at least 1,000 Ukrainian troops have entered the Kursk region, accompanied by at least 11 tanks and more than 20 other armored vehicles. For his part, a Ukrainian official noted to AFP that several “thousands” military personnel were involved.

On Telegram, videos are circulating showing Russian soldiers being incapacitated. In his daily address on Tuesday evening, Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed this: “Hundreds of Russian servicemen have already surrendered and all will receive humane treatment. They did not receive such treatment even in their own Russian army.”

But the Russian counterattack is underway. In an interview with the British news agency Reuters on Wednesday, the spokesman for the Ukrainian army noted that Moscow had cobegan to redeploy troops to Kursk. “Russia has moved some of its units from the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions in southern Ukraine”reported Dmytro Lykhovy, while taking care to specify that it was a number “relatively weak” of units. Lithuanian Defense Minister, who met Volodymyr Zelensky in kyiv on Tuesday, also said that Russia was transferring troops from Kaliningrad – the enclave Russian located between Poland, Lithuania and the Baltic Sea – to the Kursk region, writes Svoboda radio.