Russian troops are battling to push back Ukrainian forces from the Kursk region on the third day of one of the largest cross-border incursions of the war, the Russian Defense Ministry said Thursday.
A ministry statement said the Russian military and border guards have blocked Ukrainian forces from pushing deeper into the region in southwestern Russia. It added that the army is attacking Ukrainian fighters trying to advance into the area from Ukraine’s Sumy region.“Attempts by individual units to break through deep into the territory in the Kursk direction are being suppressed,” the ministry said.
Ukrainian troops had advanced as much as 15 kilometers (9 miles) into Russian territory, according to the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank. The data that hasn’t been officially confirmed.
Kyiv has not commented on the incursion. In a video address to the nation late Thursday, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy did not mention the fighting in the Kursk region but emphasized that “Russia brought the war to our land, and it should feel what it has done.”“Ukrainians know how to achieve their goals,” Zelenskyy said, adding that he received three “productive reports, exactly the kind our country needs now” on Thursday from the commander of Ukraine’s armed forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi.Russia says the military has stemmed Ukrainian advances in the border area about 500 kilometers (about 320 miles) southwest of Moscow, but military bloggers and open source data indicate Ukrainian troops have made gains in several areas in Kursk.
The Kursk region’s acting governor, Alexei Smirnov, briefed Russian President Vladimir Putin on conditions there by video link Thursday. Smirnov said the region plans to equip gas stations with electronic warfare units and to provide them with unspecified armored defense.
Kursk regional authorities reported Wednesday that at least five civilians, including two ambulance workers, were killed. Russia’s Health Ministry said 66 civilians, including nine children, have been wounded in the Kursk region in the three days of fighting.
Putin, who described the incursion as a “large-scale provocation” that involved “indiscriminate shelling of civilian buildings, residential houses and ambulances” was briefed on the situation by his top military and security officials on Wednesday.
Gen. Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the Russian military’s General Staff, told Putin via video link that about 100 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in the battle and more than 200 others were wounded.
It wasn’t possible to independently verify the Russian claims. During the war, now in its third year, disinformation and propaganda have played a central role.
John Kirby, the White House’s national security spokesman, declined to comment on the operation and said the Biden administration has reached out to the Ukrainians to better understand the situation.