Kyiv, Ukraine. An official in Russia’s Kursk border region on Monday urged more residents to evacuate due to the “very tense situation” in the area, where Russian forces are still struggling to respond to a ukrainian surprise attack after almost a week of fierce fighting.
Russian emergency authorities say more than 76,000 people have fled their homes in areas of Kursk, where Ukrainian troops and armored vehicles crossed the border on August 6, reportedly traveling up to 30 kilometers (19 miles) into Russia and raising alarm. .
The governor of the Belgorod region, adjacent to Kursk, also announced the evacuation of people from a district near the Ukrainian border, calling Monday morning “alarming” but without giving details.
Ukrainian forces quickly entered the city of Sudzha, about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the border after launching the attack. They reportedly still control the western part of the city, which is the site of a major natural gas transit station.
The Ukrainian operation is being carried out under strict secrecy and its objectives, especially whether kyiv forces intend to hold the territory or are organizing hit-and-run attacks, remain unclear. He impressive maneuver that took Kremlin forces by surprise counteracts the tireless effort in recent months to break through Ukrainian defenses at selected points along the front line in eastern Ukraine.
Russia has seen previous incursions into its territory during the nearly two-and-a-half-year war, but the incursion in the Kursk region marked the largest attack on its territory since World War II, embarrassed President Vladimir Putin and constituted a watershed moment. in hostilities. It is also the first time that the Ukrainian military has led a raid instead of pro-Ukrainian Russian fighters.
The development has dealt a blow to Putin’s efforts to pretend that life in Russia has been largely unaffected by the war. State propaganda has tried to downplay the attack, emphasizing authorities’ efforts to help the region’s residents and trying to distract from the military’s failure to prepare for the attack and quickly repel it.
Residents of Kursk recorded videos lamenting that they had to flee the border area, leaving their belongings behind and pleading with Putin for help. But Russia’s state-controlled media kept a tight lid on any expression of discontent.
Retired General Andrei Gurulev, a member of the lower house of the Russian parliament, criticized the military for failing to adequately protect the border.
He noted that while the army has established minefields in the border region, it has failed to deploy enough troops to block enemy attacks.
“Unfortunately, the group of forces protecting the border did not have their own intelligence resources,” he said on his messaging app channel. “No one likes to see the truth in reports, everyone just wants to know that everything is okay.”
Pasi Paroinen, an analyst at the Finland-based open-source intelligence agency Black Bird Group, which monitors the war, said the toughest phase of the Ukrainian incursion will likely begin now, when Russian reserves enter combat.
He said that “if the Ukrainians are going to advance further from where they are now, it will be a tough battle, unlike the initial moments of this offensive.”
Ukraine’s advance into Russian territory “is challenging the operational and strategic assumptions” of Kremlin forces, according to the Institute for the Study of War.
It could force Russia to deploy more military assets along the long border between the two countries, the Washington-based think tank said in an assessment late Sunday.
He described the Russian forces that responded to the raid as “hastily assembled and disparate.”
In other developments:
— The International Atomic Energy Agency said a fire near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Russian-occupied Ukraine “had no impact” on the safety of the facility.
Radiation levels remain unchanged at what is one of the world’s 10 largest nuclear plants, the UN body said.
Russia and Ukraine blamed each other for the fire in a cooling tower outside the plant’s perimeter, and the head of the IAEA said Sunday night that the war continues to endanger the Zaporizhzhia facility.
“These reckless attacks endanger the nuclear safety of the plant and increase the risk of a nuclear accident. They must stop now,” said Rafael Mariano Grossi.
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