Ukraine says it has taken more ground and prisoners during its advance into Russia border region

Kyiv, Ukraine. Ukrainian forces pressed forward with their cross-border breakthrough On Wednesday they entered Russia’s Kursk region for a second week, claiming they took more ground, captured more Russian prisoners and destroyed a bomber in attacks on military airfields.

Assault troops advanced 1 to 2 kilometers (about a mile) further into areas of Kursk on Wednesday, Ukrainian army commander Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi said in a video posted on President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Telegram channel.

Ukrainian troops also took more than 100 Russian soldiers prisoner, Syrskyi said. Zelenskyy said they would eventually be exchanged for Ukrainian prisoners of war.

Additionally, troops destroyed a Russian Su-34 aircraft used to drop devastating gliding bombs on Ukraine’s frontline positions and cities, the Ukrainian General Staff said.

He surprising ukrainian push The entry into the Kursk region that began on August 6 has shaken the Kremlin. The daring operation is the largest attack on Russia since World War II and could involve up to 10,000 Ukrainian troops backed by armor and artillery, military analysts say.

Syrskyi claims that Ukrainian forces have advanced in 1,000 square kilometers (about 390 square miles) of the Kursk region, although that claim could not be independently verified.

If true, and if Ukraine really controls all that territory in the Kursk region, it would have captured in just one week almost as much Ukrainian land as Russian forces took (1,175 square kilometers (450 square miles)) between January and July this year. according to calculations by the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank.

Russian authorities acknowledged Ukrainian advances in the Kursk region but described them as smaller than kyiv claims. Still, they have evacuated about 132,000 people from the Kursk and Belgorod regions and have plans to evacuate another 59,000 more.

Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereschuk said Wednesday that the military plans to open humanitarian corridors that would allow civilians in the Ukrainian-controlled areas of the Kursk region to head to other parts of Russia or Ukraine.

Ukraine also claimed that during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday it carried out its largest attack against Russian military airfields since the beginning of the Kremlin’s intervention. large scale invasion in February 2022.

A Ukrainian security official told The Associated Press that the goal was to undermine Russia’s air power advantage. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

A spokesman for Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that kyiv has no intention of occupying Russian territory it controls. Rather, their goal is to prevent Russia from launching missiles into Ukraine from Kursk, he said.

Analysts say kyiv’s forces attacked the Kursk region because Russia’s weak command and control structure there made it vulnerable.

“The situation remains very fluid, but there are clear signs that Russian command and control of responding units are still coming together, and the important unity of command has not yet been achieved,” said retired Vice Adm. Robert Murrett, a professor and deputy director of the Security Law and Policy Institute at Syracuse University. “The next 2 or 3 days will be critical for both sides.”

In AP video filmed in Ukraine’s Sumy region, which borders Kursk and which analysts say serves as a base for the cross-border advance, Ukrainian trucks and armored vehicles traveled along roads lined with thick forests.

Meanwhile, the Russian border region of Belgorod, near Kursk, declared a regional emergency on Wednesday during intense Ukrainian shelling. A federal emergency was declared in Kursk on Saturday.

Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov described the situation there as “extremely difficult and tense” as the attacks destroyed homes and caused civilian casualties, making locals nervous.

Children, in particular, are being moved to a safe place, Gladkov said on his Telegram channel, adding that around 5,000 children are in camps in safe areas. The previous day he said approximately 11,000 people had fled their homes and around 1,000 remained in temporary accommodation centers.

It was unclear how, when – or if – Ukraine would try to free itself from the ground it has taken. The Ukrainian military claims to control 74 settlements, believed to be villages or hamlets, in the Kursk region.

Ukrainian television channel 1+1 published a video report Wednesday that it said was from Sudzha, a Russian town about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the border. The report showed burned columns of Russian military vehicles and Ukrainian soldiers delivering humanitarian aid to local residents and removing Russian flags from an administrative building.

Russia’s dilemma is whether to withdraw troops from the front line in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, where achieving a breakthrough is one of the Kremlin’s main war goals, to defend Kursk and stop the Ukrainian advance.

US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that events in Russia are “creating a real dilemma” for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Biden declined to comment further on the top-secret operation until it is over.

The Institute for the Study of War said the raid is unlikely to change the dynamics of the conflict.

“Russian authorities will likely remain extremely reluctant to withdraw Russian military units engaged in combat from (Donetsk) and will likely continue to deploy a limited number of irregular forces to Kursk… due to concerns that the pace will further slow.” of Russian operations in these highest priority directions. ”he said Tuesday night.

A woman in Belgorod told the AP on Tuesday that the Ukrainian shelling had been more intense for about 10 days until Monday, when it was followed by a lull. The number of people in Belgorod who openly supported the war has decreased since the start of intense Ukrainian attacks, she 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.

In his late-night speech on Tuesday, Zelenskyy said the Kursk operation also aims to lift the country’s spirits after 900 days of war and make 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 change the situation for the benefit of our state,” Zelenskyy said.

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Burrows reported from London. Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal, contributed to this report.

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