Ukrainian forces continued their major cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region for a second week on Wednesday, claiming to have gained more ground, captured more Russian prisoners and destroyed a jet bomber.
Since the beginning of the day, assault troops had advanced 1-2 kilometers (miles) in some parts of Kursk, Ukrainian army commander Oleksandr Syrskyi said in a video posted on President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Telegram channel.
Ukrainian troops also took more than 100 Russian soldiers prisoner on Wednesday, according to Syrskyi. Zelenskyy said they would be used to exchange them for Ukrainian prisoners of war.
The Ukrainian General Staff added that troops deployed in Kursk destroyed a Russian Su-34 aircraft used to launch devastating glide bombs against positions and cities on the Ukrainian front.
The surprise Ukrainian attack on Russian soil, which began on August 6, has shaken the Kremlin. The audacious Kursk operation is the biggest attack on Russia since World War II and could involve up to 10,000 Ukrainian troops backed by armour and artillery, according to military analysts.
The spokesman for Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that kyiv has no intention of occupying the Russian territory it claims to be in its possession. The aim is to prevent Russia from launching missiles towards Ukraine from Kursk, he said.
Meanwhile, Russia’s border region of Belgorod declared a regional emergency on Wednesday due to intense Ukrainian shelling. A federal emergency was declared in Kursk last Saturday.
Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov described the situation there as “extremely difficult and tense” as the attacks destroyed homes and caused civilian casualties, unsettling the local population.
In particular, children are being moved to safe places, he said on his Telegram channel, adding that some 5,000 children are in camps in safe areas. The day before, he said around 11,000 people had fled their homes, with around 1,000 in temporary accommodation centres.
It was not clear how, when or whether Ukraine would try to free itself of the territory it has seized. The Ukrainian military says it controls 74 settlements, believed to be villages or hamlets, in the Kursk region. Russian officials say more than 100,000 people have been evacuated, mostly from Kursk.
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Ukrainian television channel 1+1 on Wednesday published a video report it said came from Sudzha, a Russian town about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the border.
The report showed burned Russian military columns on roads in the area, as well as Ukrainian soldiers delivering humanitarian aid to local residents and removing Russian flags from an administrative building.
Russia’s dilemma is whether to withdraw troops from the front line in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, where a breakthrough is currently a primary war goal for the Kremlin, to defend Kursk and prevent the incursion from growing.
US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that developments in Russia are “creating a real dilemma” for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Biden declined to comment further on the top-secret operation until it is over.
The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank, said the raid was unlikely to change the dynamics of the war.
“Russian authorities will likely remain extremely reluctant to withdraw Russian military units engaged in combat from (Donetsk) and will likely continue to deploy a limited number of irregular forces to Kursk… due to concerns about a further slowdown in the pace of Russian operations in these higher-priority directions,” he said late Tuesday.
The operation has at least caused embarrassment for the Kremlin, as Russian civilians are left reeling from the attack.
A woman in Belgorod told The Associated Press on Tuesday that Ukrainian shelling had been at its most intense for about 10 days until Monday, when it was followed by a lull.
The number of people in Belgorod who openly supported the war has dwindled following the intensification of Ukrainian attacks, the woman told AP, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
“When the explosions started near the city, when people were dying and when all this started happening before our eyes… and when it affected people personally, they stopped supporting at least openly” the war, she said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the Kursk operation also aims to lift the country’s spirits after 900 days of war and unite people by making an emphatic statement about Ukraine’s military capabilities.
“Now all of us in Ukraine must act as united and efficiently as we did in the first weeks and months of this war, when Ukraine took the initiative and began to turn the situation around in favor of our state,” Zelenskyy said in his evening speech on Tuesday.
“Now we have done exactly the same: we have once again proved that we, Ukrainians, are capable of achieving our goals in any situation, capable of defending our interests and our independence,” he said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday it destroyed 117 Ukrainian drones and four missiles in eight of its regions overnight.
Burrows reported from London. Barry Hatton contributed to this report from Lisbon, Portugal.
© 2024 The Canadian Press
