Ukraine claims new advances into Russian territory

Photo: Roman Pilipey Agence France-Presse A border crossing between the Ukrainian region of Sumy and Russia is pictured Tuesday after being destroyed during clashes between the two countries' armed forces.

Ania Tsoukanova – Agence France-Presse and Jonathan Brown – Agence France-Presse in Soumy

Published at 6:18 p.m.

• Europe

Ukraine claimed fresh advances into Russian territory on Tuesday, saying it had captured 74 towns in the Kursk region, a week after launching a surprise offensive aimed at pushing Moscow to accept a “just peace.”

President Volodymyr Zelensky has described the fighting as “difficult and intense” in the border area, where Ukrainian forces rushed in on August 6, catching Russian troops off guard. It was the largest incursion by a foreign army onto Russian soil since the end of World War II.

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

Ukrainian army commander Oleksandr Syrsky said his troops had “advanced in some areas by 1 to 3 kilometers” during the day, taking control of an additional “40 square kilometers.”

Russian forces, meanwhile, said they had “thwarted” new Ukrainian attacks in the Kursk region, where they said they had sent reinforcements and inflicted casualties on their adversaries.

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

The 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, who we met on Tuesday in the region of Sumy in northeastern Ukraine, told AFP.

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

“Ukraine does not want to annex territories in the Kursk region,” assured its foreign ministry spokesman, Georgy Tykhy, judging Kiev's operations “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 reestablish a just peace […], the sooner the incursions of Ukrainian defense forces into Russian territory will cease.”

But negotiations between the two belligerents are completely blocked because of 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 Kiev — a plan that would serve as the basis for a future peace summit to which the Kremlin must be invited.

His counterpart Vladimir Putin is demanding that kyiv cede to Russia the territories it occupies and renounce its membership in NATO.

On Monday, the Kremlin master accused the Ukrainians of carrying out this operation to be in a better “position” in the event of talks.

Second breath

The Ukrainian offensive has already caused more than 120,000 residents to flee, according to Russian authorities. So far, at least 12 civilians have been killed and more than 100 have been injured.

Vladimir Putin, for whom the Ukrainian attack is an unexpected setback, has ordered his army to “drive the enemy” out of Russia, assuring that he sees behind this operation the hand of “the West [which] is at war with us.”

On the ground, AFP saw Ukrainian armored vehicles massing 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 had until then very frequently bombed his village.

In this Ukrainian region which faces that of Kursk, at least 20,000 civilians are also in the process of evacuation.

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

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