Nearly 30 towns conquered, more than 120,000 civilians evacuated… The advance of Ukrainian troops in the Russian region of Kursk (western Russia, bordering Ukraine), constitutes an unexpected setback for the Russian regime. President Vladimir Putin promised on Monday, August 12, to “expel” Ukrainian forces from the area, the scene of an incursion by the Ukrainian army since August 6.
Ukrainian army commander Oleksandr Syrsky has claimed that his troops control nearly 1,000 square kilometers of territory in Russia, much more than Russian authorities have acknowledged. “We continue to conduct offensive operations in the Kursk region,” he told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
After months of retreating in the face of Russian troops on its eastern front, Ukraine launched on August 6 the largest cross-border attack against Russia since the start of the Russian assault in February 2022. It is also the largest offensive by a foreign army on Russian soil since World War II.
“Thousands” of Ukrainian troops are taking part, a senior Ukrainian security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP on Sunday. The aim, he said, is “to stretch the enemy’s positions, inflict maximum losses, and destabilize the situation in Russia.” […] and to transfer the war to Russian territory.”
In his daily message, Volodymyr Zelensky assured him that the Kursk offensive was “a question of security” for Ukraine because of the Russian strikes targeting its territory. He also called once again on the West to authorize the use of long-range missiles to strike Russian territory. “Russia must be forced to peace,” he said.
“The main task of the Defense Ministry is to expel the enemy from our territories,” Putin said Monday at a meeting with security forces. The Russian military has had the upper hand on the eastern front in Ukraine for several months, gradually gaining ground but failing to make any major breakthroughs. It claimed the capture of the village of Lisichne in eastern Ukraine on Monday.
In the Kursk region, at this stage, 28 localities have come under Ukrainian control, the acting governor, Alexei Smirnov, acknowledged. According to him, the Ukrainian gains extend over an area 40 kilometers wide and 12 kilometers deep, much less than the 1,000 km2 claimed by the Ukrainian commander Syrsky. According to Alexei Smirnov, at least 12 civilians were killed and 121 others injured, “including 10 children,” during the incursion of the Ukrainian army.
“Moving the war to the aggressor’s territory”
Faced with this situation, the Russian authorities ordered new evacuations of civilians in the Kursk region on Monday, as well as in the neighboring Belgorod region, both bordering Ukraine. “To date, 121,000” people “have left or been evacuated” from the Kursk region, detailed Mr. Smirnov.
The Ukrainian army is seeking to “sow discord in our society,” Vladimir Putin has lashed out, accusing kyiv of “executing the will” of the West. “The enemy is seeking to improve its negotiating position in the future,” Vladimir Putin also denounced.
For Volodymyr Zelensky, whose country remains almost 20% occupied by Russia, the objective of the surprise assault in the Kursk region is clear: “to move the war to the territory of the Russian aggressor.”
According to the Ukrainian official interviewed by AFP, the incursion was also aimed at easing pressure on the Ukrainian army in Donbass (east), where Russian troops have been advancing since the beginning of the year. Sooner or later, Russia will “stop” the Ukrainian units in the Kursk region but, if “after a certain time, it does not manage to retake these territories, they could be used for political purposes”, for example, during peace negotiations, he judged.