KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The Russian border region of Belgorod declared an emergency Wednesday under heavy shelling by Ukrainian forces who are pressing a major cross-border incursion into the adjacent Kursk region for a second week.
Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov described the situation there as “extremely difficult and tense” as the attacks destroyed homes and caused civilian casualties, unnerving the local population.
Children, in particular, are being transported to safe locations, he said on his Telegram channel, adding that around 5,000 children are in camps in safe areas. He said the previous day that around 11,000 people had fled their homes, with around 1,000 remaining in temporary accommodation centres.
The surprising Ukrainian onslaught on Russian soil, which began on August 6, shook the Kremlin. The daring operation in Kursk is the biggest attack on Russia since World War II and could involve up to 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers supported by armor and artillery, military analysts say. An emergency was declared in Kursk last Saturday.
A spokesman for Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that Kiev has no intention of occupying Russian territory it claims to own. The goal is to stop Russia from firing missiles at Ukraine from Kursk, he said.
It was unclear how or when – or if – Ukraine would attempt to free itself from the ground it had seized. The Ukrainian military claims to control 74 settlements, believed to be villages or hamlets, in the Kursk region. Russian authorities say more than 100,000 people have been evacuated, mainly from Kursk.
Ukrainian TV channel 1+1 published a video report on Wednesday that it said was from Sudzha, a Russian town about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the border.
The report showed Russian military columns set on fire on roads in the region, as well as Ukrainian soldiers delivering humanitarian aid to local residents and removing Russian flags from an administrative building.
Russia’s predicament is to withdraw troops from the front line in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, where achieving a breakthrough is currently a primary war objective for the Kremlin, defending Kursk and preventing the incursion from escalating.
US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that developments in Russia are “creating a real dilemma” for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Biden declined to comment further on the top-secret operation until it was over.
The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank, said the incursion was unlikely to change the dynamics of the war.
“Russian authorities will likely remain extremely averse to withdrawing combat-engaged Russian military units from (Donetsk) and will likely continue to deploy limited numbers of irregular forces to Kursk… due to concerns about further slowing the pace of Russian operations in these higher priority directions ,” he said Tuesday night.
The operation at least caused embarrassment to the Kremlin as Russian civilians recovered from the attack.
A woman in Belgorod told The Associated Press on Tuesday that Ukrainian shelling was heaviest for about 10 days, until Monday, when it was followed by a lull.
The number of people in Belgorod who openly supported the war decreased after Ukrainian attacks intensified, the woman told the AP, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
“When the explosions started near the city, when people were dying and when all this started happening before our eyes… and when it affected people personally, they stopped at least openly supporting” the war, the woman said.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy indicated that the Kursk operation also aims to lift the country’s spirits after 900 days of war and bring people together, making an emphatic statement about Ukraine’s military capabilities.
“Now, all of us in Ukraine should act as unitedly and efficiently as we did in the first weeks and months of this war, when Ukraine took the initiative and began to transform the situation to the benefit of our state,” Zelenskyy said in his evening speech. . address Tuesday.
“Now we have done exactly the same thing – we have proven once again that we, Ukrainians, are capable of achieving our goals in any situation – capable of defending our interests and our independence,” he said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday it destroyed 117 Ukrainian drones and four missiles in eight of its regions overnight.
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Burrows reported from London. Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal, contributed to this report.
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