Sumy region, Ukraine August 11, 2024. REUTERS/Viacheslav Ratynskyi
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy acknowledged that Ukraine had launched an incursion into Russian territory, specifically targeting the western Kursk region, in what he described as an effort to “restore justice” and exert pressure on Moscow’s forces. This marks his first formal recognition of Kyiv’s unexpected offensive in Russian territory.
Russian forces, as of Sunday, were engaged in their sixth consecutive day of intense combat in response to Ukraine’s largest incursion into Russian territory since the onset of the war. The offensive left parts of southwestern Russia vulnerable until reinforcements began to arrive. In response, Russian authorities implemented stringent security measures and evacuated residents from three border regions on Saturday. Concurrently, Belarus, a close ally of Moscow, deployed additional troops to its border with Ukraine, accusing Kyiv of violating its airspace.
In his nightly video address, President Zelenskiy reported discussions with top Ukrainian military commander Oleksandr Syrskyi regarding the ongoing operation. He reiterated Ukraine’s commitment to responding proportionately to Russia’s full-scale invasion, which began in February 2022. “Today, I received several reports from Commander-in-Chief Syrskyi regarding the front lines and our actions to push the war onto the aggressor’s territory,” Zelenskiy stated on Saturday evening. “Ukraine is proving that it can indeed restore justice and is ensuring the exact kind of pressure that is needed – pressure on the aggressor.”
The Russian Ministry of Defense announced on Sunday that it had successfully intercepted and destroyed 14 Ukrainian drones and four Tochka-U tactical ballistic missiles over the Kursk region, as well as 18 additional drones in other areas frequently targeted by Ukraine. In a statement, the Ministry characterized the ground incursion as “barbaric” and questioned its military rationale. According to military analysts, the incursion caught the Kremlin off guard.
Ukraine has managed to occupy only a few tens of square kilometers of Russian territory, without making any formal claims to it, while Russia continues to control over 100,000 square kilometers of internationally recognized Ukrainian territory. Russian General Valery Gerasimov reported on Wednesday that the Ukrainian attacks had been halted, though Russian forces have not yet succeeded in pushing the Ukrainian troops back across the border. Russian military bloggers have noted that while the situation has stabilized following the arrival of Russian reinforcements, Ukraine is rapidly building up its forces in the area.
In related developments, early on Sunday, officials in Kursk reported that 13 people were injured after debris from a destroyed Ukrainian missile struck a nine-story residential building in the city. Images released by Kursk’s mayor depicted flames engulfing an apartment block surrounded by charred debris. It remains unclear whether further damage occurred. Both Moscow and Kyiv typically refrain from disclosing the full extent of damage caused by attacks unless there are injuries or significant damage to residential structures.
Alexei Smirnov, the acting governor of Kursk, ordered local authorities to expedite the evacuation of civilians from at-risk areas. On Saturday, Russia’s TASS state news agency reported that over 76,000 people had been evacuated. Both Kyiv and Moscow deny targeting civilians in their respective military actions. The ongoing conflict, which has resulted in thousands of deaths and displaced millions of Ukrainians, shows no signs of resolution.
Russian military bloggers have raised concerns about the extent of the Ukrainian incursion, noting that fighting is occurring as deep as 20 kilometers (12 miles) inside the Kursk region. This has prompted questions regarding the relative ease with which Ukraine penetrated Russian defenses in the area.
Following the death of a father and his four-year-old son in a Russian airstrike near Kyiv on Sunday, President Zelenskiy urged Ukraine’s Western allies to make “strong decisions” that would enable Ukrainian forces to strike deeper into Russian territory using Western-supplied weapons. “When Ukraine’s long-range capabilities have no limits, this war will definitely have a limit,” Zelenskiy wrote on the social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter).
In response to the incursion, Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova announced that she had appealed to the United Nations, urging it to condemn Ukraine’s actions in the Kursk region. In a statement on Telegram, Moskalkova requested that the U.N. Human Rights Commissioner take measures to prevent what she described as “gross mass violations of human rights” resulting from Ukraine’s actions.
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