Ukraine says it is “strengthening” its positions in Russia's Kursk region

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday that his army was “strengthening” its positions in Russia's Kursk region, more than ten days after launching a massive offensive into Russian territory.

The Russian army, for its part, said it was “repelling” further assaults from Kiev, while continuing to pound several regions of Ukraine, particularly in Donbass, further south, where it has the advantage over Kiev's outnumbered forces.

On August 6, the Ukrainian army attacked the Kursk region, seizing, according to kyiv, 82 localities and 1,150 square kilometers in an offensive that surprised Moscow and caught its army off guard, moving for the first time in a massive and prolonged manner the clashes into Russian territory.

A destroyed border post near the Ukrainian-controlled Russian town of Sudzha in the Kursk region, photographed during a press visit organized by Ukrainian authorities, August 16, 2024 © AFP – Yan DOBRONOSOV

“General (Oleksandr) Syrsky reported on the strengthening of the positions of our forces in the Kursk region and the expansion of the stabilized territory,” Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday, after a meeting with the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army.

“The operation is going exactly as we planned,” he said in an online video message in the evening.

The day before, General Syrsky had informed the Ukrainian president that his troops had advanced “one to three kilometers” and taken new prisoners among the Russian soldiers.

The Russian army, which has deployed material and human reinforcements, assured for its part on Saturday that it had “repulsed” Ukrainian assaults near three localities in the Kursk region. Kursk and inflicted heavy losses on his opponent.

President Vladimir Putin ordered his men several days ago to “expel” kyiv's forces from Russian territory.

This advance by Ukrainian forces comes as Germany, the second-largest contributor after the United States, plans to halve its military spending in favor of Kiev in 2025, banking on the money generated by frozen Russian assets to continue supporting the country.

– Bridge destroyed in Russia –

Russia: Ukrainian offensive in the Kursk region © AFP – Valentin RAKOVSKY, Cléa PECULIER, Paz PIZARRO

In the meantime, Kiev's army has taken root in the Kursk region, staging an unprecedented counter-offensive in Russian territory since Moscow began its large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

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At least 12 civilians have been killed and more than a hundred injured since the start of the Ukrainian operation, according to Russian authorities.

Russian authorities have accused the Ukrainian army of destroying a bridge used to evacuate civilians in the Glushovsky district, a few kilometres from the hottest fighting in the region.

A video released by Ukrainian Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk appears to show the bridge, which was also critical for supplying Russian troops, being hit by a projectile before collapsing in a cloud of smoke.

“Ukrainian pilots are conducting precision strikes on enemy strongholds, equipment, as well as on enemy logistics centers and supply routes,” he said on Telegram, without directly specifying that it was the same bridge.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that “volunteers providing aid to the civilian population were killed” in the strike. “All those responsible for these inhumane acts will be severely punished,” she promised.

Faced with the unprecedented advance of Ukrainian forces into Russian territory, several tens of thousands of civilians have already fled the border villages of the Kursk region.

In the neighboring region of Belgorod, the Russian authorities announced Friday evening that they were evacuating five border towns starting Monday and blocking access to them.

On the Ukrainian side, the flow of evacuees is also continuing, towards the city of Sumy, about 40 km from the common border. The city was targeted by a Russian strike on Saturday morning, which left two people injured, according to the Interior Ministry.

– Russian attacks in the East –

At the same time, heavy fighting continues further south, in Donbass, the epicentre of the conflict in eastern Ukraine, where the Russian army has been gaining ground for months.

A Ukrainian soldier carries a shell from a Soviet-made T-72 tank, in the Sumy region, near the border with Russia, on August 12, 2024 © AFP – Roman PILIPEY

In recent days, Moscow has claimed responsibility for the capture of several villages in the direction of the city of Pokrovsk, a logistics hub “Dozens of Russian attacks have been launched on our positions over the past day,” Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday, assuring that his soldiers were doing “everything to destroy the occupier and repel the attacks.” “The situation is under control,” he said.

Russian strikes nevertheless killed two people on Saturday in eastern and northeastern Ukraine, according to Ukrainian authorities.

A strike left at least one person dead and several injured in Myrnograd, a town located 5 kilometers east of Pokrovsk, according to the local governor, Vadym Filachkine.

Further north, a 49-year-old woman was killed in the early morning in a Russian bombardment in the Kharkiv region, according to the regional prosecutor's office.

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