Last week, Ukrainian forces rammed through the Russian border and swept across western parts of the Kursk region. The incursion is Ukraine’s biggest across the border since the start of Russia’s special military operation in the country in 2022.
Apparently caught by surprise, Moscow has hit back militarily by deploying its own troops to quash the incursion. Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Monday that additional forces and resources had arrived in Kursk, without elaborating on the numbers.
“Heavy tracked vehicles are being loaded onto automobile trailers for prompt delivery to the areas where Ukrainian Armed Forces formations are being blocked and to ensure the safety of the road surface,” the military reported, according to Al Jazeera.
On Monday, Ukraine’s army chief, Oleksandr Syrskyii, said Kyiv controls about 1,000sq km (386sq miles) of Kursk, according to a video excerpt of his report shared by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Telegram.
Earlier in the day, Kursk Governor Alexei Smirnov told Putin that six days of Ukrainian ground attacks on his region had resulted in the loss of 28 settlements, and the incursion was about 12km deep and 40km wide.
He said 12 civilians had been killed and 121,000 people were evacuated or left the areas affected by fighting on their own. The total planned number of evacuations is 180,000.
MP/PR