-
Ukraine launched an invasion of Russian territory this week, attacking the Kursk region.
-
Little is said about the attack, but the troops were spotted at least ten kilometers deep inside Russian territory.
-
Russia exudes calm, but there are still reports of heavy fighting.
Ukraine carried out a rare attack on Russian territory this week, with infantry and armored vehicles entering the Kursk region on Tuesday.
The Russian region's acting governor, Alexei Smirnov, declared a state of emergency on Wednesday in response to the raid.
Ukraine has not officially disclosed the attack, which Russian officials say involved 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers. The Russian Defense Ministry said Ukraine also sent 11 tanks and dozens of armored vehicles.
The exact scale of the resources Ukraine is deploying for this attack is still unclear.
Kiev, however, appears to be closing in on Kursk in the last two days. The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank, said it had geolocated videos showing Ukrainian armored vehicles fighting at least six miles from the border on Wednesday.
Interestingly, two of these incidents discovered by the ISW occurred on roads behind Russian field fortifications several kilometers behind the border.
It is also reported that the Ukrainian attack extended further east, to the border town of Sudzha, where people were injured and buildings damaged, according to Smirnov.
Kursk is a region in southwestern Russia, bordering Ukraine. The fighting is taking place just west of Belgorod and Kharkov, where Russia attempted to invade in May.
Authorities have begun sending doctors from St. Petersburg and Moscow to the region.
While local authorities ordered the evacuation of nearby towns, Smirnov predicted calm on Tuesday, saying the “situation is under control.”
But leaders in Moscow have called the raid a “large-scale provocation” by Ukraine, and Russian leader Vladimir Putin called a meeting with its security chiefs on Wednesday to discuss the issue.
“The regime in Kiev has once again carried out a large-scale provocation, indiscriminately firing various types of weapons, including rockets, at civilian buildings, homes and ambulances,” he was quoted as saying by state media.
Smirnov wrote in one of his statements on Tuesday that Putin is personally involved in the handling of the attack on Kursk.
Russian army chief Valery Gerasimov claimed on Wednesday that Ukraine's advance had been halted at Kursk and that Russian troops now want to regain control all the way to the border.
Some reports from Russian military bloggers, several of whom have close ties to the security forces, appear to contradict Gerasimov's claims that the fighting has come to a standstill.
At least two military bloggers wrote on Wednesday that Ukraine had seized control of a Sudzha facility used by Gazprom to pump gas to Europe.
Rybar, a Telegram channel run by military blogger Mikhail Zvinchuk, reported that Ukrainian units were advancing in the northeast and capturing villages. The channel added that a Ukrainian reconnaissance unit had broken through and nearly reached Korenevo, a town about 14 miles from the border.
“The enemy's long preparations for the attack have unfortunately borne fruit,” the channel wrote, adding that the battle had become “difficult.”
Ukraine has not said why it is attacking Kursk. Some observers speculate that the raid was intended to draw Moscow's attention and resources away from the eastern front, where fighting in the Donbas has been brutal and heavy.
The Ukrainian and Russian defense ministries did not immediately respond to requests for comment sent by Business Insider outside regular business hours.
Read the original article on Business Insider
