A senior commander said on Tuesday that Russian forces used drones, missiles, and aircraft to retaliate against Ukrainian troops. He claimed that after the worst attack on Russian territory since the conflict started, Ukraine’s progress had been halted.
Last week, thousands of Ukrainian soldiers unexpectedly crossed the Russian border. Russian President Vladimir Putin speculated that the action was done to bolster Kyiv’s negotiating position and obstruct the advance of Russian forces in the front.
After the Ukrainian army took control of some Russian territory, Moscow was forced to evacuate around 200,000 people and send in reinforcements.
Russian military bloggers reported on intense fighting occurring along the Kursk front while Ukrainian forces tried to take more territory. But they also pointed out that Russia was putting in more soldiers and heavy artillery, effectively fending off multiple attacks from Ukraine.
The Russian defence ministry claimed to have stopped attacks on communities about 26–28 km (16–17 miles) from the border after releasing footage of Sukhoi Su-34 bombers striking what it believed to be Ukrainian forces in the Kursk border area.
Russian forces claimed to have destroyed 35 Ukrainian tanks, 31 armoured personnel carriers, 18 infantry combat vehicles, and 179 other armoured vehicles during the course of the week-long conflict.
The leader of the Chechen Akhmat special forces unit, Major General Apti Alaudinov, declared that the Ukrainian soldiers understood their planned blitzkrieg had failed and that the country’s quick advance had been halted.
It was unclear who controlled the Russian town of Sudzha, which is used to transit gas from Western Siberia to Ukraine, Slovakia, and other EU nations. Gazprom said on Tuesday that it was still using Sudzha to transport gas to Ukraine.
Alexei Smirnov, the acting governor of Kursk, declared on Monday that 28 communities in the area had been taken over by Ukraine; the incursion was roughly 40 km broad and 12 km deep. In the meantime, Ukraine asserted that it had taken almost 1,000 square kilometres (386 square miles) of Russian land, more than twice the extent reported by Russian sources.
Western officials promised to support Ukraine in driving out Russian forces and regaining its land after Russia invaded that country in 2022. Ukraine reclaimed a significant amount of land in 2022, but their 2023 counteroffensive was unable to penetrate Russia’s well reinforced defences. Russian soldiers have been advancing more into Ukrainian territory this year, and as of right now, Russia controls over one-fifth of the area that is recognised by the international community as Ukraine.