The Ukrainian army has surrounded about 3,000 Russian soldiers in the Glushkovsky district of the Kursk region, reported The Guardian and The Wall Street Journal.
When the Russian Federation tried to prevent its troops from being encircled between the Seym River and the Ukrainian border, Ukraine used US-supplied HIMARS missile systems and explosive-laden drones to strike bridges and pontoon facilities. In the early hours of August 6, the Ukrainian army carried out a surprise invasion of the Kursk region – the first invasion of Russia by a foreign army since World War II. Dozens of settlements were occupied by the Ukrainian forces.
The Russian army cannot yet stop the movement of Ukrainian troops. The Russian forces around the Seym River are effectively cut off from their army. At least three bridges in the region were reportedly blown up by the ZSU. The surrounded Russians try to assemble pontoon bridges, but the Ukrainian artillery destroys them.
Against this background, the authorities in the western Russian Kursk region have begun installing concrete shelters to protect the population against the backdrop of the ongoing Ukrainian invasion, interim governor Alexei Smirnov announced today, quoted by Reuters, BTA reported. Russian forces have been fighting Ukrainian troops in the Kursk region, which borders Ukraine, since August 6, when thousands of Ukrainian soldiers crossed the border and forced the evacuation of thousands of people.
„On my order, the administration of the city of Kursk determined the key places for placing modular concrete shelters – in the most densely populated areas”, wrote on his channel in “Telegram” Smirnov. The shelters will be located near about 60 bus stops. The governor posted a photo of a truck unloading one of the concrete structures. The population of the city of Kursk is about 450,000 people.
Smirnov announced that shelters will be placed in two more cities in the region – Zheleznogorsk and Kurchatov. Kurchatov is also home to the Kursk nuclear power plant, which Russia has accused Ukraine of planning to attack, but which Kiev denies. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, is expected to visit the power plant at the end of August.
Meanwhile, Russian authorities said that Moscow's forces had prevented another incursion by Ukrainian units across the border in the western Bryansk region, about 240 km from the site of the fighting in Kursk region. The advance of Russian troops in eastern Ukraine continues in their attempt to establish control over the entire Donetsk region. The US Embassy in Kyiv has warned that there is an increased risk of missile and drone airstrikes across Ukraine in the coming days as the country prepares to mark the 33rd anniversary of its independence from the Soviet Union on Saturday.