KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s top military commander says his forces control 1,000 square kilometers (386 square miles) of the Kursk region next door to Russia, the first time a Ukrainian military official has commented publicly on gains from a lightning invasion. It embarrassed the Kremlin.
Gen. Oleksandr Shirsky made the statement on Monday in a video posted on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Telegram channel, in which he briefed the president on the situation on the front.
“Our troops are fulfilling their mission. Fighting is indeed ongoing across the entire front. The situation is under our control,” Schirsky said.
The Russian military is still scrambling to respond. Ukrainian surprise attack After nearly a week of fierce fighting.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said the incursion, which caused more than 100,000 civilians to flee, was an attempt by Kiev to thwart a Russian advance. Moscow offensive Expanding their influence in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine will give them an advantage in future peace negotiations.
Zelenskiy acknowledged for the first time that Ukrainian forces were operating in the Kursk region. In a Telegram message, he praised the “fortitude and decisive actions” of Ukrainian soldiers and commanders but gave no details.
Putin said on Monday at a meeting with top security and defense officials that the attack, which began on Aug. 6, appeared to reflect an attempt by Kiev to gain a better position in future negotiations to end the nuclear deal. warHe claimed that Moscow would win.
Putin said Ukraine may have aimed to cause unrest in Russia with the attack, but that goal had not been achieved, and claimed the attack had led to an increase in volunteers for the Russian military, which he said would continue its offensive in eastern Ukraine anyway.
Associated Press correspondent Karen Chamus reports on the latest developments in Russia’s invasion of Kursk in Ukraine.
“It is clear that the enemy will continue to try to destabilize the situation on our border in order to destabilize our domestic political situation,” Putin said, adding that Russia’s main task is “to keep the enemy out, to drive them out of our territory and to ensure reliable security of our borders in cooperation with the border guards.”
Kursk Oblast’s acting governor, Alexei Smirnov, informed Putin that Ukrainian forces had advanced 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) into Kursk Oblast, crossing a 40-kilometer (25-mile) front line, and now held 28 Russian settlements.
Smirnov said 12 civilians were killed and 121 wounded in the operation, including 10 children. About 121,000 people had been evacuated or left fighting-affected areas on their own, he said.
Smirnov noted that it is difficult to track all the Ukrainian forces roaming the area and conducting diversionary operations, some of whom are using fake Russian identity documents.
The governor of Belgorod Oblast, neighboring Kursk, also announced he would evacuate residents from areas near the Ukrainian border.
Ukrainian forces launched the offensive and quickly advanced on the town of Suzha, about 10 kilometers across the border, and reportedly still control the western part of the town, which is home to a key natural gas station.
The Ukrainian operation is closely guarded secret and its objectives remain unclear. Awesome move Russia’s surprise attack on Kremlin forces Constant effort In recent months, they have been trying to break through Ukrainian defenses at certain points along the front line in eastern Ukraine.
Zelensky said the territory now controlled by Ukrainian forces had been used multiple times to launch attacks on Ukraine’s Sumy region, adding that “it is entirely fair to destroy Russian terrorists where they are.”
“Russia brought war to other countries, now it is bringing war back to its homeland,” he said in a video posted to his Telegram channel.
While Russia has seen invasions of its own territory before during the nearly two-and-a-half-year war, the incursion into the Kursk region marked a milestone in the fighting, marking the largest attack on Russian territory since World War II and the first time that Ukrainian forces, rather than pro-Ukrainian Russian forces, have led the invasion.
The advance dealt a blow to Putin’s efforts to portray life in Russia as largely untouched by the war. State propaganda has sought to downplay the attacks, emphasize that authorities are trying to help local residents, and distract from the failure of the military to prepare for and quickly repel them.
Residents of Kursk have made videos lamenting having to flee the border area, leaving behind their belongings, and pleading with Putin for help, but Russian state media has tightly hushed up any expressions of discontent.
Retired military general Andrei Gurlev, a member of the Russian State Duma, criticised the military for failing to properly defend the border.
“Unfortunately, the border forces did not have their own intelligence,” he said in a messaging channel. “Nobody wants to see the truth in reports. Everyone just wants to hear that everything is fine.”
The fighting on Russian soil has rekindled questions about whether Ukraine is using weapons supplied by NATO allies, and some Western countries are reluctant to allow Ukraine to use its military aid to attack Russian territory, fearing that would escalate tensions that could drag Russia and NATO into war.
It is unclear what weapons Ukraine has at the border, but Russian media widely reported that American-made Bradley armored infantry vehicles and German-made Marder armored infantry vehicles were there, a claim that could not be independently verified.
Ukraine Already used US weapons for attacks inside Russia.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said in an interview published on Monday that the weapons provided by Italy “cannot be used to attack Russian territory.”
But German Defense Ministry spokesman Arne Collatz said on Monday that legal experts agreed: “International law dictates that a country that defends itself must also defend itself on the aggressor’s territory. That is clear from our point of view.”
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday that reinforcements sent to the region, supported by air force and artillery, had repelled seven attacks by Ukrainian forces near Martynovka, Borki and Korenvo in the past 24 hours.
The ministry said Russian forces also thwarted an attempt by Ukrainian task force forces to penetrate deeper into Russian territory near Kavchuk.
Pasi Paloinen, an analyst at the Finnish open-source intelligence agency Blackbird Group, which monitors the war, said the toughest phase of the invasion of Ukraine is likely to begin now, with Russian reserve forces joining the fighting.
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