Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday called a Ukrainian incursion into the Kursk region in the southwest of the country a “large-scale provocation,” and his officials fought for a second day against cross-border incursions. Ukrainian officials have been silent on the scale of the operation.
Putin met with his most sensible defense and security officials to discuss what he called “the indiscriminate shelling of civilian buildings, residential homes and ambulances with other types of weapons. “He told his cabinet to coordinate aid to the Kursk region. position about 320 miles from Moscow.
Army Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov told Putin at the assembly via video link that about 100 Ukrainian infantrymen were killed in the war and more than 200 wounded, Russian news agencies reported.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement that Ukrainian shelling killed at least two other people, a paramedic and an ambulance driver, and wounded 24 others.
It was unimaginable to independently determine Russian claims. Russian disinformation and propaganda have played a central role in the war, which is in its third year. John F. Kirby, a White House national security spokesman, declined to comment on the operation, saying Biden’s leadership had reached out to the Ukrainians to better understand what happened.
The head of the Russian region invited citizens to donate blood. “In the past 24 hours, our region has heroically resisted the attacks” of Ukrainian fighters, acting governor Alexei Smirnov said on Telegram.
Smirnov said the government had evacuated more than two hundred people from the bombed areas, while several thousand more left in their own vehicles.
If confirmed, the cross-border incursion would be one of those carried out through Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, and unprecedented for the deployment of Ukrainian army units.
kyiv’s purpose may simply be to attract Russian reserves to the region, which could weaken Moscow’s offensive operations in parts of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, where Russian forces have stepped up their attacks and are moving toward significant operational gains.
But that could threaten to further stretch ill-equipped Ukrainian troops along the more than 600-mile-long front line.
Even if Russia were to dedicate reserves to stabilize the new front, given its abundant numbers and small number of Ukrainian forces involved in the operation, this would likely have little long-term impact.
However, the operation may boost Ukrainian morale at a time when kyiv’s forces face relentless Russian attacks and are expected to suffer more in the coming weeks.
Several Ukrainian brigades stationed along the border region said they could simply comment. Ukraine’s Defense Ministry and General Staff said they would comment.
Russian forces temporarily repelled previous cross-border incursions, before they caused damage and embarrassed authorities.
The Russian Defense Ministry said Tuesday that as many as 300 Ukrainian soldiers, supported by 11 tanks and more than 20 armored fighting vehicles, had entered Russia and suffered heavy losses. He said Wednesday that the military corps of workers and border guards “continued to destroy units of the Ukrainian army in spaces along the border in the Kursk region. “
The ministry said Russian forces supported by artillery and fighter jets “allowed the enemy to advance deeper into the territory of the Russian Federation. “
Open-source monitors have also been unable to verify those claims. The American Institute for the Study of War may not be able to determine whether the damaged and abandoned armored vehicles shown in a geotagged video 4 miles north of the border west of Lyubimovka, in the Kursk region, were Ukrainian.
The think tank also questioned the video shared through Russian army bloggers that purported to show the consequences of the Ukrainian incursions. Most of the damage discovered “appears to be the result of shelling by the Ukrainian regime and does not imply that there is any activity in the area. “he said in his daily report.
Responsibility for past incursions into Russia’s Belgorod and Bryansk regions has been claimed through two shadowy groups: the Russian Volunteer Corps and the Russian Freedom Legion, which are composed of Russians and fought alongside Ukrainian forces.
Some Russian war bloggers who have covered the war have said that there are Ukrainian infantrymen in Kursk.
Rybar, a Telegram channel run through Mikhail Zvinchuk, a former press secretary for the Russian Defense Ministry, said Ukrainian troops had seized three settlements in the region and were continuing to advance deep into the region. Array Another pro-Kremlin army blog, Two Majors, claimed that Ukrainian troops had pushed up to nine miles into the region.
None of these claims can be independently verified.
The border between the Kursk region and Ukraine stretches for 240 kilometers, allowing sabotage teams to make quick raids and advance before Russia deploys reinforcements.
Kullab writes for the Associated Press.
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