The Ukrainian army announced on Tuesday, January 7, that it was carrying out “combat operations” in the Russian region of Kursk, striking in particular “a military command post” striking in particular “a military command post”.
“This strike is an integral part of the combat operations of the units of the Ukrainian Defense Forces, which carry out combat operations on the territory of the Russian Federation,” the Ukrainian General Staff said in this statement published in English on Telegram .
On Sunday, the Russian army reported a new Ukrainian offensive in this region, where the Ukrainian military has controlled several hundred square kilometers since August 2024, despite attempts to dislodge them from Russian troops, supported in this sector by soldiers North Koreans, according to kyiv and the West.
“We maintain a buffer zone on Russian territory”
Monday evening, President Volodymyr Zelensky, for his part, recalled in his daily address “the importance” of fixing the Russian army in the Kursk region, so as to prevent it from deploying all of its troops on the eastern and southern fronts. “We maintain a buffer zone on Russian territory, actively destroying Russian military potential,” he assured. Russian military bloggers, close to the army, have also reported this new Ukrainian attack since Sunday.
The Ukrainian army, for its part, has remained generally silent on the subject. “This is not my domain,” the commander of the Ukrainian ground forces, Mikhailo Drapaty, responded on Monday when asked about the Russian claims.
On Tuesday, the Ukrainian army did not specify in its press release whether American (ATACMS) or British (Storm Shadow) missiles had been used in its “high-precision strike” against a Russian command post near Belaïa. Russia sees the Ukrainian attacks carried out on its soil with Western missiles as a red line and promises each time “a response”, threatening in particular to strike the capital kyiv in retaliation.