Ukraine claims new advances in Russia, state of emergency in Belgorod

Ukraine continued its major offensive on Russian territory on Wednesday, where It claims to have conquered 74 localities in the Kursk region, while intensively bombing the neighboring region of Belgorod, whose governor has decreed was a state of emergency.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has reported “difficult and intense” fighting in the Kursk region, bordering Ukraine, where Kiev's forces rushed in on August 6, catching Russian troops off guard. It is the largest incursion by a foreign army onto Russian soil since the end of World War II.

“There are 74 localities under the control of Ukraine. Inspections and stabilization measures are being carried out there,” the Ukrainian head of state said on Telegram. He also assured that “hundreds” of Russians had been taken prisoner.

Ukrainian army commander Oleksandr Syrsky said his troops had “advanced in some areas by one to three kilometers” during the day, taking control of an additional “40 square kilometers.”

For their part, Russian forces announced that they had “thwarted” new Ukrainian attacks in the Kursk region, where they said they had sent reinforcements and inflicted losses on their adversaries.

In the neighboring Belgorod region, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov declared a state of emergency on Wednesday. “The situation in our Belgorod region remains extremely difficult and tense due to shelling by the Ukrainian armed forces. Houses have been destroyed, civilians have died and been injured,” he wrote on Telegram.

The authorities of the Kursk, Voronezh, Nizhny Novgorod and Bryansk regions also reported that drones from Ukraine had been shot down by Russian air defenses overnight.

Refugees from the Kursk region receive humanitarian aid in Moscow, August 13, 2024 © AFP – STRINGER

After a week of rapid advance, General Syrsky claims that his soldiers have conquered more than 1,000 square kilometers in Russia.

Russian authorities, for their part, acknowledged on Monday the loss of 28 localities and Ukrainian territorial gains extending over an area 40 kilometers wide and 12 kilometers deep.

According to calculations made by AFP on Tuesday from Russian sources relayed by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), an American think tank, Ukrainian troops have advanced 800 km2 in the Kursk region.

For comparison, Russia has advanced 1,360 km2 in Ukrainian territory since January 1, 2024, according to AFP analysis.

– “Just Peace” –

“When our men “entered (Russian soil), the Russians fled,” a Ukrainian soldier who took part in the attack and was met on Tuesday in the region of Sumy in northeastern Ukraine told AFP.

On the Russian-Ukrainian border, August 13, 2024 © AFP – Roman PILIPEY

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In this area, AFP was able to reach a destroyed Ukrainian border post. Along the road, a sign showed the Russian city of Kursk 108 kilometers away.

“Ukraine does not wish to annex territories in the Kursk region,” assured its diplomatic spokesman, Georgiy Tykhy, judging Kiev's operations to be “absolutely legitimate” in the face of the Russian occupation of nearly 20% of the country.

This offensive, he promised, will stop if Moscow accepts the conditions set by Ukraine: “The sooner Russia agrees to re-establish a just peace (…), the sooner the incursions of Ukrainian defense forces into Russian territory will cease.”

A Ukrainian armored vehicle in the Sumy region, near the Russian border, on August 13, 2024 © AFP – Roman PILIPEY

However, negotiations between the two belligerents are completely blocked due to the demands of each side, deemed unacceptable by the other.

President Zelensky has said he wants to prepare by November, the date of the next presidential election in the United States – a vital ally of kyiv – a plan that would serve as the basis for a future peace summit to which the Kremlin must be invited.

Speaking for the first time on the subject from New Orleans where he was traveling, US President Joe Biden said that this Ukrainian offensive “creates a real dilemma for (Russian President Vladimir) Putin”.

The Russian head of state demands, for his part, that kyiv cede to Russia the territories it occupies and renounce joining NATO.

– Second wind –

The Ukrainian offensive has already caused the flight of more than 120,000 inhabitants, according to Russian authorities. So far, at least 12 civilians have been killed and more than a hundred injured.

Ukrainian soldiers wait to go into combat in the Sumy region, near the Russian border, August 13, 2024 © AFP – Roman PILIPEY

Vladimir Putin, for whom the Ukrainian attack is an unexpected setback, ordered his army to “expel the enemy” from Russia, ensuring that he saw the hand of “the West” behind this operation (which) is at war against us”.

On the ground, the AFP saw Ukrainian armored vehicles gathering near the border in the Sumy region and , in the opposite direction, a vehicle carrying about 10 men in Russian military fatigues, blindfolded and with their hands tied.

“Since our guys attacked there , it has become much calmer”, notes Anatoli Symonenko, a 59-year-old man, according to whom the Russians until then bombed his village very frequently.

In this Ukrainian region, which faces that of Kursk, at least 20,000 civilians are also being evacuated.

After several complicated months on the eastern front, Ukrainian troops seem to have found a second wind thanks to this unexpected success.

The soldier interviewed by AFP swears he is ready to “hold the ground” won in a week: “We too will put down roots.”

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