Russia said it has been battling a significant cross-border incursion for the third consecutive day as Ukrainian troops advance in the Kursk region.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence said on Thursday its troops were “continuing to destroy” armed Ukrainian units and were using air strikes, rocket and artillery fire to try to push them back.
It said it had rushed in reserves and was “thwarting attempts to break through” deeper into the Kursk region.
Alexey Smirnov, the region’s acting governor, said he had announced a state of emergency after pro-Ukrainian forces stormed into the region on Tuesday, deploying about 1,000 soldiers and more than two dozen armoured vehicles and tanks, according to the Russian army.
Without mentioning the Kursk attacks, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday: “The more pressure we put on Russia … the closer we will get to peace. A just peace through just force.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused Ukraine of a “major provocation”.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said Ukrainian troops have advanced up to 10km (6 miles) inside Russia in possibly the most serious border incursion of the conflict.
“The current confirmed extent and location of Ukrainian advances in Kursk Oblast indicate that Ukrainian forces have penetrated at least two Russian defensive lines and a stronghold,” the think tank based in Washington, DC said in its latest update that geolocated footage.
The troops appeared to be trying to advance along the Sudzha-Korenovo highway, it added.
The advance has centred on the logistical hub of Sudzha, a town of about 5,000 inhabitants located 8km (5 miles) from the Ukrainian border.
The Ministry of Health said 31 civilians, including six children, had been injured on Wednesday. Smirnov said the day before that five people had been killed as Ukrainian troops backed by tanks and armoured vehicles breached the border.
Russia did not provide any information on military casualties.
Witnesses interviewed on Russian television said they had fled border areas in cars under drone fire. A priest in Sudzha, Evgeny Shestopalov, said in a video shared by Russian media, that the town was “on fire” and that residents unable to evacuate had taken shelter in his church.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine did not mention the incursion in its daily battlefield update on Wednesday. In a late evening report, it said fighting had intensified in the Sumy region, where authorities have evacuated about 6,000 people.
It said Russian forces had deployed aircraft, helicopters and heavy weapons in the area, “but made no headway and suffered significant losses”.
An aide to Ukraine’s presidential office on Thursday blamed Moscow for the Ukrainian incursion into Russia, without taking direct responsibility for the most serious attack on Russian territory in months.
“The root cause of any escalation, shelling, military actions, forced evacuations and destruction of normal life forms – including within the Russian Federation’s own territories like Kursk and Belgorod regions – is solely Russia’s unequivocal aggression,” presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak said on social media.
The root cause of any escalation, shelling, military actions, forced evacuations, and destruction of normal life forms, including within Rf’s own territories like #Kursk and Belgorod regions, is solely Russia’s unequivocal aggression. This includes attempts to seize foreign…
— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) August 8, 2024
White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said the United States was seeking an understanding from Ukraine on the incursion, and said it had had no advance knowledge of it.
US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby stressed that Washington had not changed its policy on Ukraine’s use of US-supplied weaponry, which could be used only “to target imminent threats just across the border”.
Zelesnkyy posted on X that he had met with a bipartisan delegation of the US House of Representatives to discuss air defence and ways to stop “any attempts by Russia to prolong this war”.
In a separate post, he also said that “F-16s are already in Ukrainian skies, and there will be more”.
US-made F-16 fighter jets had been long sought after by Ukraine to protect its skies against Russian missiles.
The battles around Sudzha come as Russia announced advances along the front line in Ukraine’s east and claims to have taken 420 square kilometres (162 square miles) of territory from Ukrainian forces since June 14.
Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Pro-Ukrainian forces, including units of Russians fighting on Ukraine’s side, such as the Russian Volunteer Corps and the Freedom of Russia Legion, have made several brief incursions into Russia since then.
