WESTERN PERSPECTIVE
Russia fighting intense battles against major Ukrainian incursion
Russia was fighting intense battles on Saturday against thousands of Ukrainian troops as deep as 20 km (12 miles) inside the Kursk region after Ukraine's biggest attack on Russian sovereign territory since the start of the war in 2022.
Ukrainian forces rammed through the Russian border early on Tuesday and swept across some Western parts of Russia's Kursk region, a surprise attack that may be aimed at gaining leverage in possible ceasefire talks after the U.S. election.
Supported by swarms of drones and heavy artillery fire, Ukrainian units moved quickly to carve out a sliver of the Western Russian territory beside the border while sabotage units pierced deeper inside Russia, according to Russian war bloggers.
"The armed forces continue to repel the attempted invasion by the Ukrainian armed forces," Russia's defence ministry said on Saturday, adding that intense battles were focused around Malaya Loknya, Olgovka and Ivashkovskoye, settlements around 10-20 km inside Russia.
In a sign of the gravity of the situation, Russia imposed a sweeping security regime in three border regions on Saturday while Belarus said it had repelled what it thinks was a major drone attack from Ukraine.
President Vladimir Putin cast the Ukrainian attack as a major provocation and though Russia's top general, Valery Gerasimov, said on Wednesday that Ukraine's incursion had been halted, Russia has thus far failed to push the Ukrainian forces back over the border.
Russian military bloggers said on Saturday the situation had stabilised after Russia rushed in forces to halt the surprise advance, though they said Ukraine was swiftly building up forces.
The Ukrainian attack has prompted some in Moscow to question why Ukraine was able to pierce the Kursk region so easily after more than two years of the most intense land war in Europe since World War Two.
"A full scale military operation is underway against a very serious enemy who are certainly not idiots," said Yuri Podolyaka, a popular Ukrainian-born, pro-Russian military blogger. He said that Russian aviation had saved the day by pummeling scores of invading Ukrainian units, but also said the truth should be told about the gravity of the situation.
U.S. SUPPORT
The battles around Sudzha come at a crucial juncture in the war: Kyiv is concerned that U.S. support could weaken if Republican Donald Trump wins the November presidential election.
Trump has said he would end the war, and both Russia and Ukraine are keen to gain the strongest possible bargaining position on the battlefield.
Ukraine wants to pin down Russian forces, which control 18% of its territory, while showing the West that it can still muster major military operations that hurt Russia even if the Kursk front is unlikely to change the outcome of the war.
Ukraine has not commented directly on the attack but video posted on Ukrainian media purported to show Ukrainian soldiers in control of a gas measuring facility in the border town of Sudzha, where Russian natural gas flowsinto Ukraine for transit to Europe.
Reuters could not verify the video. Reports from Russian sources said Ukraine was in control of some areas of Sudzha. Gas was still flowing through the pipeline on Saturday.
Alexander Bortnikov, the director of the Federal Security Service (FSB), ordered an anti-terrorist regime be imposed on Kursk, Bryansk and Belgorod regions - which have a combined area of nearly 92,000 square km.
The measures essentially give the security services sweeping powers to lockdown an area, including controls on communications and limits on a host of usual freedoms. Thousands of civilians have been evacuated from Kursk region.
Some reports said Ukrainian forces were pushing towards the Kursk nuclear power station, which supplies a major chunk of southern Russia's electricity. It has a total six reactors, two shutdown, two under construction and two operational.
The acting governor of Kursk region, Alexei Smirnov, said drone debris had fallen on a power substation near Kurchatov, the town which serves the Kursk nuclear station, which said it was operating as normal on Saturday.
The head of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency noted the "significant military activity" in the area and called for restraint.
Russian diplomats in Vienna told the IAEA that fragments, possibly from downed missiles, had been found, though there was no evidence of an attack on the station.
** Russia launches air attack on Ukraine's Kyiv, mayor says
Russia launched an air attack on Kyiv, with air defence systems engaged on the outskirts of the city in repelling the strikes, the mayor of the Ukrainian capital and military administration officials said early on Sunday.
"Air defence units operating, air raid alert continues," Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
Reuters witnesses said they heard at least two explosions in what sounded like air defence units at work.
It was not immediately clear if the attack caused any damage or injuries.
Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv's military administration, said on Telegram that the capital remained under the threat of Russia's ballistic missiles.
Kyiv, its surrounding region and all of eastern Ukraine were under air raid alerts, Ukraine's air force said on Telegram.
RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE
Russian missile destroys Ukrainian command post in Kursk
A missile strike has destroyed a Ukrainian command-and-control center in Russia’s Kursk Region, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has claimed, releasing video of the strike. Ukrainian forces launched a large-scale incursion into the border region earlier this week.
In a statement on Saturday, the ministry said that an Iskander-M short-range ballistic missile system had carried out a strike on a previously reconnoitered command post of Ukraine’s 22nd Separate Mechanized Brigade not far from the border between the two nations.
“As a result, the command staff of the… brigade, 15 people in total, was eliminated”, the statement said, adding that “there will be no mercy.”
Drone footage released by the ministry shows what appears to be a cluster of several buildings in the middle of a heavily wooded area, with at least one Ukrainian armored vehicle also present in the area. One of the buildings is then hit by a powerful explosion, sending a plume of smoke into the air.
Iskander missiles can carry a payload of up to 700kg of explosives up to 500km and travel at hypersonic speeds. Russia has been using this weapon in recent weeks to strike staging areas used by Ukrainian forces, command and control centers, airfields, defense industrial facilities, and other military targets.
The incursion into Kursk Region is Kiev’s largest assault on Russian territory since the outbreak of the conflict. While the Russian Defense Ministry initially said that the Ukrainian spearhead consisted of around 1,000 servicemen and dozens of armored vehicles, including some provided by the West, subsequent media reports suggested that the total force was at least several times larger and that some elite Ukrainian units had been thrown into the thick of the fighting.
Moscow has denounced the raid as a provocation and has accused Kiev of targeting civilians. Ukrainian officials, meanwhile, have said that the purpose of the incursion is to instill fear in the Russian population and achieve a more advantageous position for eventual talks with Moscow.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the Ukrainian advance has been halted and that reserves had been redeployed to the region. It claims that Kiev has so far lost up to 1,100 troops and 140 armored vehicles in the area.
** Ukrainian special forces decimated in botched landing operation – Moscow
The Russian military has wiped out a Ukrainian special forces unit that attempted to conduct an amphibious operation in Nikolayev Region, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said, releasing a video showing the aftermath of a fierce battle.
In a statement on Friday, the ministry said Russian forces foiled an attempt by a Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance group to land on the Kinburn Spit, a narrow stretch of land that connects to Russia’s Kherson Region and extends into the Black Sea.
Officials said the group, which included up to 16 service members on two high-speed motorboats, attempted to disembark on the spit under the cover of two other vessels. They added that the force suffered its first casualties on the beach when it hit a minefield. Those who managed to reach dry land were cut down by small arms fire, the statement said.
After suffering heavy losses, the Ukrainian military tried to evacuate from the coastline. However, as they attempted to do so, two boats were destroyed by artillery and missile fire, the ministry said, adding that the total number of Ukrainian casualties was 12.
Officials also shared drone footage of the landing site, which shows at least one heavily damaged boat stuck on the shore, with several bodies lying around.
Several Russian Telegram channels covering the conflict said the Ukrainian troops had come under fire from mortars and multiple rocket launchers, and that up to 80% of the force had been eliminated. They also posted a highly graphic video from the battlefield, apparently further from the coast, showing what appears to be at least four Ukrainian soldiers killed in action.
Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence (HUR) has confirmed the raid, claiming its forces incurred losses on the Russians. The agency said Ukrainian special forces attacked Russian fortifications in the area and that the troops raised a Ukrainian flag near a monument to famed Russian commander Aleksandr Suvorov – located not far from the beach.
Ukrainian forces occasionally attempt to stage amphibious operations in Kherson Region, including across the Dnieper River, and sometimes in Crimea, although they almost never manage to hold on their gains for long.
Reuters/RT