Thousands of people have been evacuated and Ukrainian shelling has already claimed several Russian civilian lives, according to local authorities.
“Today the enemy again tried to penetrate into the territory of the Kursk region.” The Russian Defense Ministry announced on Tuesday, August 6, that it was facing an incursion by the Ukrainian army in the Kursk region, on the border with Ukraine. Fighting was still ongoing Thursday morning, despite the repositioning of Russian armed forces. Franceinfo takes stock of what we know about the Ukrainian offensive in Russian territory.
“Up to 1,000” Ukrainian soldiers mobilized
THE Russian General Staff Chief Valery Gerasimov said on Wednesday that “up to 1,000” Ukrainian soldiers took part in the raid in the Kursk region. Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry estimated that the raid involved about 300 soldiers, as well as 11 tanks and about 20 other armored vehicles. The Russian ministry said it destroyed 16 vehicles.
To counter the intrusion of Ukrainian forces, Russia announced on Tuesday that it had sent reserve forces, without specifying their number. The following day, the chief of staff of the Russian army assured Vladimir Putin that “The enemy’s advance deep into the territory was stopped by air and artillery strikes”during a sequence broadcast on television. However, fights still take place “in the areas immediately adjacent to the border”according to the chief of staff.
If the Russian authorities mention on Thursday a situation “stable and under control”the picture painted by military experts is more alarming. The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), based in the United States, estimated in its latest report that the Ukrainians had advanced up to 10 kilometers into Russian territory, and penetrated inside“at least two Russian lines of defense”.
According to several analysts interviewed by AFP, Ukrainian soldiers reached Sudja, a Russian town of about 5,500 inhabitants located about ten kilometers from the border and which houses a gas station still supplying Europe via Ukraine. On Wednesday evening, the Rybar channel, close to the Russian army, claimed that Ukrainian forces had “took the western half of Soudja”. Although the extent of the Ukrainian military’s advance is therefore unclear, the giant Gazprom declared on Thursday that it would continue to ensure its daily deliveries of gas via its station in Sudja.
Thousands evacuated on both sides of the border
Acting Governor of the Kursk Region Alexei Smirnov declared a state of emergency on Wednesday. In a video posted on Telegram, he announced that “several thousand people” had evacuated this “bombing zone”. Around 3,000 people are affected, including 1,500 who have been taken into temporary accommodation centres, regional authorities announced on Thursday.
Five people were killed Tuesday in Ukrainian airstrikes targeting the Kursk region, according to local authorities in the region. The number of injured is 28 civilians, including children, according to an official at the Kursk regional hospital, Andrei Loktionov, quoted by the official TASS news agency.
Ukraine has also ordered The evacuation of about 6,000 people, including 425 children, from border areas near Russia’s Kursk region, Sumy region governor Volodymyr Artyukh said on Wednesday. “The order I have just signed provides for the compulsory evacuation of 23 localities”he said on television.
Vladimir Putin denounces “large-scale provocation”
The Russian president responded on Wednesday by denouncing on Russian television:a new large-scale provocation” from Ukraine, “by firing indiscriminately with different types of weapons, including rockets, at civilian buildings, homes and ambulances”. A spokesman for American diplomacy, Matthew Miller, reacted to Vladimir Putin’s remarks, estimating “It is a bit strong to call this a provocation given that Russia has violated the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine.”
The Ukrainian authorities have on their side observed an almost complete silence on the situation in the Kursk region. An adviser to the Ukrainian presidential administration spoke to X on Thursday, saying that the incursion is a consequence of “the aggression” Russian in Ukraine since 2022. “War is war, with its own rules, the aggressor inevitably pays the corresponding consequences”he added. However, he did not clearly attribute this operation to kyiv.
The day beforein his daily speech, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky congratulated the “bravery” Ukrainian forces, without explicit reference to the ongoing offensive. “The more pressure we put on Russia, (…) the closer we will get to peace”he added.
US questions kyiv over ‘objectives’ of attack
The White House said on Wednesday that it would contact kyiv to learn more about the “goals” of the incursion of Ukrainian troops. White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre clarified that Washington supports the actions of “common sense” carried out by Ukraine to stop attacks by Russian forces.
In May, US President Joe Biden authorized kyiv to use American weapons to strike targets on Russian territory near the Kharkiv region (northeast), which is under Russian attack. But US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby recalled that “Nothing [n’avait] exchange” in the policy of the United States, which opposes any Ukrainian strike further into Russian territory.
A strategic incursion to force Russia to reposition its troops
Ukrainian army’s incursion into Russian territory forces Russia “is not a territorial conquest”believes General Jérôme Pellistrandi, editor-in-chief of the National Defense Reviewwith franceinfo. He claims that “kyiv’s goal is not to go as far as Moscow”, but that this incursion “allows the Russian command to be destabilized.”
The region of Kursk is a “extremely important logistics base, it is a railway junction”the specialist emphasizes. But “The region was not protected as we can see in Donbass.” The Ukrainian army was therefore able “to do enough damage to force the Russians to review their system” And “rcall, for example, troops who are on the front line to plug the gaps” in this strategic region which cannot be abandoned to the Ukrainians.
“I think one of the goals [de Kiev] is to withdraw the reserves [russes]to simplify the actions of our military in the Kharkiv sector and perhaps in other regions”Ukrainian military expert Serguiï Zgourets told AFP. The geography of this area in Russia allows “to effectively carry out this type of deterrent action against the enemy, with a reduced force, and this is probably what the Ukrainian army is doing.”