Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Wednesday it was conducting intense fighting in the Kursk region to repel a “massive offensive” launched in recent hours by Ukrainian forces on Russian territory.
According to Moscow, Ukrainian troops, backed by aerial bombardment, were advancing on Wednesday towards the border town of Chudja, which is 10 kilometers from the border.
At least five civilians are believed to have died in the region during Ukrainian attacks in recent hours, Agence France-Presse reported.
According to Valery Gerasimov, the head of the Russian General Staff, at least 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers, supported by artillery, tank and armored units, attacked Russian positions near the villages of Nikolayevo-Tarino and Olesnia yesterday.
Soudja is a strategic objective for Russian gas transit and is actually the last operational transshipment point for Russian gas exports to Europe via Ukraine. The Kursk Nuclear Power Plant is also about 60 kilometers away.
Photos released by the interim governor of the Kursk region show houses heavily damaged by Ukrainian shelling in Chudja, Russia.
Photo: A.P
Actions by airstrikes, missile forces, artillery strikes and units covering the border […] It prevented the enemy from advancing deep into the territory of the Russian Federation
The Russian Ministry of Defense assures that it had to withdraw the occupiers to contain the Ukrainian advance.
According to the Telegram Rybar channel, close to the Russian army, Ukrainian troops captured three villages in the Kursk region. A source in the Ukrainian security services (SBU) told AFP the plane was destroyed by a small drone of a Russian Mi-28 helicopter. A first in the history of warfare
.
Moscow, for its part, says it has destroyed no fewer than 50 Ukrainian armored vehicles, including seven assault tanks. Unverifiable data. Kyiv is completely silent on this move.
Institute for War StudiesThe US-based Conflict Monitor said geospatial images released on August 6 showed damaged and abandoned armored vehicles seven kilometers north of the Russian border, but could not confirm whether the vehicles were Russian, Ukrainian or both.
Evacuation of civilians in the Kursk region
In Kursk, local authorities have come under rocket fire and drone attacks in recent hours, with the region’s interim governor, Alexei Smirnov, urging people to stay away from windows and shelter in medical facilities to replenish blood supplies.
He also said that several thousand people have left the area in the last 24 hours.
The government has ordered the evacuation of at least 6,000 civilians in 23 locations near the border with Ukraine.
Apart from a few incursions and raids on Russian soil by commandos, this was the first official ground attack by Ukrainian forces on Russian soil.
In March, Russian anti-Kremlin groups also launched offensives in the Belgorod and Kursk regions from Ukraine without making strategic gains.
Some Russian military bloggers have cited Reuters Ukraine has marked the opening of a new front as it desperately tries to repel the Russian invasion launched in February 2022.
A provocation according to Putin
Instead of confirming the theory, Russian President Vladimir Putin described the Ukrainian incursion on Wednesday. Provocation on a large scale
.
The Kiev regime has launched a new large-scale provocation, indiscriminately firing a variety of weapons, including rockets, at civilian buildings, homes and ambulances.
Vladimir Putin underlined this at the start of a government meeting broadcast on Russian television.
President Vladimir Putin criticized Ukrainians for targeting civilian buildings and emergency services. (archive photo)
Photo: via Reuters/Gavril Grigorov
The purpose of this Ukrainian advance on Russian soil is unclear. A front opening in Russia could cause the Russians to move troops north to defend their territory and be relieved from the Ukrainian front.
The announcement of a successful penetration into Russian territory could also boost the morale of Ukrainian troops and people who have suffered several setbacks in recent months. Added to this are fears that if Donald Trump wins the November presidential election, he could lose valuable US financial and logistical support.
Meanwhile, on the Ukrainian front, Russian troops moved closer to the town of Pokrovsk on Wednesday, threatening a key supply route for Kiev’s forces. Russian forces say they have captured the village of New York and are closing in on Doretsk in the Donetsk region.
Loss of Russian submarine in Black Sea
Ukrainian air forces continue major operations against Russian military targets in the occupied zone, but particularly in the Black Sea, where Ukraine says it sank a Russian submarine four days ago.
The Russian Kilo-class attack submarine Rostov-on-Don sank during a missile attack on the port city of Sevastopol on Friday, Ukrainian civil servants said.
The Kilo-class submarine Rostov-on-Don is a diesel-electric powered vessel stationed in the Black Sea. The submarine is capable of launching multiple types of missiles at Ukrainian positions. (archive photo)
Photo: afp / OZAN KOSE via Getty Images
It will be one of four submarines of the Russian Navy deployed in the Black Sea and capable of launching Kalibr cruise missiles. The Russian Defense Ministry had no comment.
The Ukrainian command was also responsible for the destruction of four S-400 air defense systems protecting the Crimean peninsula, which was militarily annexed by Russia in 2014.
According to British intelligence, Rostov-on-Don had already suffered major damage following a Ukrainian attack early in the war.
Ukraine’s military said Russia later repaired the $300 million submarine and tested its capabilities near Sevastopol.
Ukrainian forces have been very active in the Black Sea, where they have recorded several successes since the start of the war, including the destruction of the Russian Navy’s flagship in the Black Sea, the Moskva, in April 2022.
Last week, Ukraine’s military was forced to withdraw all of its naval assets from the Sea of Azov, a body of water connected to the Black Sea, following repeated attacks on its ships by Moscow.
Russia’s internal security service, the FSB, recently said it had foiled a Ukrainian plot to destroy Russia’s last aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov. Launched in 1985, the ship has been undergoing repairs since 2018.
With information from the BBC, REUTER, Agence France-Presse and CNN
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