The three-day operation to capture Kiev did not it's going according to plan for Vladimir Putin. For the first time since the Second World War, the army of another country has invaded the Russian Federation, according to the Bloomberg agency.
This episode of the war revealed the fragility of the defense of the Russian border and raised the morale of the Ukrainians. It has also undermined the Kremlin's carefully constructed image of Putin as a defender of ordinary Russians, as the war he started in Ukraine now increasingly spills over into Russia. The Russian army, which threatens to reach Berlin and London, cannot defend even its own territory.
DeepState has released a video of the operation of the Ukrainian army, which entered the Kursk region and has been fighting against Russian forces for three days now. The footage shows dozens of Russian soldiers raising the white flag. The footage is believed to have been shot near the town of Suja, which Russian military bloggers have already reported as "lost".
The adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky - Mykhailo Podolyak, stated today that Russia's aggression is the cause of any escalation of the conflict with Ukraine, including the events in Kursk and Belgorod region in Russia, reported Reuters, writes BTA. "The main reason for any escalation of tension, for shelling, for military actions, for forced evacuations, for the destruction of the normal way of life, including in its own territories such as Kursk and Belgorod Oblast, is only and only the unequivocal aggression of Russia", wrote Podoliak in English on the social platform "Ex", the agency noted.
The European Union considers that the recent Ukrainian invasion of the border Russian Kursk region is part of the "legitimate military actions of self-defense", a spokesman said today in Brussels, quoted by DPA. The spokesman for the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, said that "Ukraine has the right to defend itself" against Russia, including "hitting the enemy on its territory".
Russia has declared a state of emergency in the Kursk region because of the fighting, with about a thousand Ukrainian soldiers taking part in the offensive, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. The EU spokesman confirmed "full support" of the block "for Ukraine and for its legitimate self-defense against aggression" and said the alliance would continue its "political, financial, humanitarian, diplomatic and military assistance" for Kyiv.
Russian forces have been fighting for a third day with Ukrainian military units that have crossed the Russian border into the Kursk region, Reuters reported, noting that it was an audacious attack on the world's largest nuclear power that forced Moscow to send reinforcements. About a thousand Ukrainian military personnel crossed the border line in the early hours of August 6 with tanks and armored fighting vehicles, being covered by air and ground, respectively, by swarms of drones and artillery fire, Reuters recalled, citing Russian representatives.
Ukrainian forces stormed the fields and forests through which the border passes, in the direction of the border town of Suja. It is the last distribution node in the flow of Russian natural gas to Europe through Ukraine, according to Reuters. Russian President Vladimir Putin described the attack as a "large-scale provocation". The White House announced that the US, which is Ukraine's biggest supporter, had no prior knowledge of the offensive and would ask Kiev for more details.
The highest-ranking Russian general - the chief of the general staff, Valery Gerasimov, informed Putin yesterday that the Ukrainian offensive has been stopped in the border zone. However, many Russian war bloggers claim that fighting continues today and that civilians have been evacuated.
Ukraine's surprise invasion of Russia's Kursk region prompted Russian President Vladimir Putin to convene a meeting with his top defense and law enforcement officials, notes the Guardian, quoted by BTA. A message from one of the Russian military bloggers claimed that Ukrainian forces had advanced north, possibly up to 15 km from the border, along a highway north of the border village of Sverdlikovo and near a major gas transmission hub, but this could not be independently confirmed. road.
The acting governor of the Kursk region, Aleksei Smirnov, announced that he had imposed a state of emergency in the border region, although it was not clear what measures this included. Several thousand civilians were evacuated from the frontline areas, and 300 people were accommodated in temporary housing for the night.
Authorities in Ukraine's northeastern Sumy Oblast, just across the border with Kursk Oblast, also announced they were evacuating about 6,000 people. Ukrainian officials remained silent during the incursion, possibly fearful of giving away too much information about their intentions, the paper said. Russia said the attack began around 8:00 a.m. Tuesday, when Ukrainian troops crossed the border between the villages of Nikolayevo-Darino and Oleshnya with the apparent intention of moving north and east.