KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday that a Ukrainian military incursion into the Kursk region, which has caused more than 100,000 civilians to flee and thousands more to be wounded, is a gross violation of international law. Embarrassed the KremlinIt is an attempt by Kiev to stop Moscow attack in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine and gain influence in possible future peace talks.
Russian forces are still trying hard to respond to Ukrainian surprise attack After nearly a week of heavy fighting, Putin insisted that Moscow’s army would prevail.
Putin said at a meeting with top security and defense officials that the offensive, which began on August 6, appeared to reflect Kyiv’s attempt to gain a better negotiating position in possible future talks to end the conflict. War.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed for the first time that Ukrainian military forces were operating inside the Kursk region. In a post on Telegram, he praised the country’s soldiers and commanders for their “steadfastness and decisive actions.”
He did not provide further details, and suggested that Ukraine could offer humanitarian assistance in the region.
In a video posted on Zelenskyy’s Telegram app, the Ukrainian military’s commander-in-chief briefed the president on the situation on the front lines and said Ukraine controlled 1,000 square kilometers (386 square miles) of Russian territory, the first time a Ukrainian military official has publicly commented on the gains of the incursion.
“The troops are carrying out their tasks. Fighting is already going on along the entire front line. The situation is under our control,” said General Oleksandr Syrsky.
Putin said Ukraine may have hoped the attack would cause public unrest in Russia, but failed to achieve that goal, and claimed that the number of volunteers to join the Russian army had increased because of the attack. He said Russian forces would continue their offensive in eastern Ukraine anyway.
Associated Press correspondent Karen Chamas reports on the latest developments in the Ukrainian incursion into Kursk, Russia.
“It is obvious that the enemy will continue its attempts to destabilize the situation in the border area, to try to destabilize the internal political situation in our country,” Putin said. He added that Russia’s main task is to “put pressure on the enemy, expel him from our territory and, in cooperation with the border service, ensure reliable coverage of the state border.”
Acting Kursk Governor Alexei Smirnov told President Putin that Ukrainian forces had advanced 12 kilometres (7.5 miles) into the Kursk region across a 40-kilometre (25-mile) front and now controlled 28 Russian settlements.
Smirnov said 12 civilians were killed and 121 others, including 10 children, were wounded in the operation. He added that about 121,000 people were evacuated or left the areas affected by the fighting on their own. The total number of evacuations planned is 180,000 people.
Smirnov added that tracking all Ukrainian units roaming the area and working to divert its path is difficult, noting that some of them use fake Russian identities.
The governor of the Belgorod region adjacent to Kursk also announced the evacuation of people from an area near the Ukrainian border.
Ukrainian forces quickly entered the town of Sudzha, about 10 kilometers (six miles) from the border, after launching the attack. They are said to still control the western part of the town, which includes a major natural gas plant.
The Ukrainian operation is kept strictly confidential, and its objectives remain unclear. Amazing maneuver Who surprised the Kremlin forces opposes Russia continuous effort In recent months, Russian forces have managed to break through Ukrainian defenses at select points along the front line in eastern Ukraine.
Russia has seen previous incursions into its territory during the nearly two-and-a-half-year war, but the Kursk offensive was the largest on its territory since World War II, marking a turning point in the hostilities. It was also the first time the Ukrainian military had led an incursion rather than pro-Ukrainian Russian fighters.
The advance dealt a major blow to Putin’s efforts to pretend that life in Russia was largely unaffected by the war. Government propaganda has tried to downplay the offensive, emphasizing the authorities’ efforts to help the region’s population and seeking to distract from the military’s failure to prepare for and quickly repel the attack.
Kursk residents have recorded videos lamenting their forced displacement, leaving their belongings behind, and pleading with Putin for help. But Russia’s state-controlled media has imposed strict restrictions on any expression of discontent.
Retired General Andrei Gorolev, a member of the Russian parliament’s lower house of parliament, criticized the military for failing to properly protect the border.
“Unfortunately, the border force did not have its own intelligence assets,” he said via his messaging app. “Nobody likes to see the truth in reports, everybody just wants to hear that everything is fine.”
The fighting inside Russia has raised questions about whether Ukraine is using weapons supplied by NATO members. Some Western countries have been reluctant to let Ukraine use their military aid to strike Russian territory, fearing that it could fuel an escalation that could drag Russia and NATO into war.
While it is not clear what kind of weapons Ukraine is using across the border, Russian media have widely reported that American Bradley and German Marder armored infantry vehicles have been present there. This claim could not be independently verified.
Ukraine I have already used it. American weapons to strike inside Russia.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said in an interview published Monday that the weapons his country provided “cannot be used to attack Russia on its territory.”
Meanwhile, German Defense Ministry spokesman Arne Collatz said Monday that legal experts agree that “international law states that a state defending itself has the right to defend itself on the territory of the attacker. This is clear from our point of view as well.”
Russia’s defence ministry said on Monday that reinforcements sent to the area, backed by air power and artillery, had repelled seven attacks by Ukrainian units near Martynovka, Borki and Korynevo in the past 24 hours.
The ministry added that Russian forces also prevented an attempt by Ukrainian mobile groups to penetrate deep into Russian territory near Kavushuk.
The ministry added that Russian air forces and artillery also struck concentrations of Ukrainian troops and equipment near Sudzha, Korylovka, Bykhovo, Lyubimovo and several other settlements. The ministry added that warplanes and artillery struck Kyiv’s reserves in the Ukrainian Sumy region across the border.
The hardest phase of the Ukrainian incursion is likely to begin now as Russian reserves enter the fray, said Pasi Paroinen, an analyst at the Finland-based open-source intelligence agency Blackbird Group, which monitors the war.
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