WESTERN PERSPECTIVE
Ukraine says advance into Russia 'going well', creates strategic buffer
Ukraine's forces advanced further into Russia's Kursk region on Wednesday as Kyiv said its gains would provide a strategic buffer zone to protect its border areas from Russian attacks.
Kyiv's surge into Russian territory last week caught Moscow by surprise. Russian forces that began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 had been grinding out steady gains all year.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he met top officials to discuss the humanitarian situation and establishing a military commandant's offices “if needed” in an occupied area that Kyiv says exceeds 1,000 sq km (390 sq miles).
"We continue to advance further in Kursk," Zelenskiy wrote on Telegram, "from one to two km in various areas since the start of the day".
Later, in his nightly address, Zelenskiy referred to the growing number of Russian prisoners of war taken in Kursk who could be exchanged for Ukrainian fighters.
"Our advance in Kursk is going well today – we are reaching our strategic goal. The 'exchange fund' for our state has also been significantly replenished."
Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said creation of a "buffer zone" was "designed to protect our border communities from daily enemy attacks".
Russia has been pummelling Ukraine with strikes launched from adjacent border territories, including Kursk.
Ukraine complains its defence against such attacks has been hamstrung by the need to respect Western countries' compunction about using their weapons against Russia's hinterland rather than against its forces in occupied Ukraine. Zelenskiy once more urged Western allies to permit long-range missile strikes into Russia.
RUSSIA SAYS IT DOWNS UKRAINIAN DRONES
Russian President Vladimir Putin has vowed to expel the Ukrainian troops. He says they aim, with Western backing, to give Kyiv a stronger hand in possible future ceasefire talks. But more than a week of intense battles have so far failed to oust them.
"The situation remains difficult," said Yuri Podolyaka, an influential Ukrainian-born, pro-Russian military blogger.
Ukraine's General Staff said Kyiv hit four Russian military airfields overnight in the Russian regions of Voronezh, Kursk and Nizhniy Novgorod, targeting fuel stores and aerial weapons. Zelenskiy called the attack "timely" and "accurate".
The aim of the long-range drone strike was to undermine Russia's ability to attack Ukraine with glide bombs, a Ukrainian security source told Reuters on condition of anonymity. Ukraine's military said it had destroyed a Russian Su-34.
Moscow said it shot down 117 of the Ukrainian drones as well as four missiles. The Russian Defence Ministry posted a video on Telegram that it said showed Sukhoi Su-34 bombers striking Ukrainian positions in Kursk region.
Later, Russia's defence ministry said its forces had repelled a series of Ukrainian attacks inside Kursk, including at Russkoye Porechnoye, 18 km (11 miles) from the border. Some pro-Russian war bloggers said the front had been stabilised, while state television said Moscow's forces were turning the tide.
Russia's National Guard said it was beefing up security at the Kursk nuclear power plant, just 35 km (22 miles) from the fighting.
In the Russian border region of Belgorod, governor Vyacheslav Gladkov declared a state of emergency.
Russia says it has already evacuated around 200,000 people from the border zone. The acting governor of the Kursk region late on Wednesday said on Telegram that residents of the border settlement of Glushkovo were ordered to evacuate.
UKRAINE PLANS CIVILIAN EVACUATION CORRIDORS
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Kyiv would open humanitarian corridors for evacuating civilians toward both Russia and Ukraine.
Ukrainian officials said Kyiv would also arrange access for international humanitarian organisations, likely to include the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations.
The unprecedented incursion carries major risks for Russia, Ukraine and the West, which is keen to avoid a direct confrontation between Russia and the U.S.-led NATO military alliance that has helped arm Ukraine.
U.S. President Joe Biden said U.S. officials were in constant touch with Kyiv over the incursion, although the White House said Washington had not received advance notice and had no involvement.
Russian officials say Ukraine's Western backers must have known of the attack. "Of course they are involved," lawmaker Maria Butina told Reuters.
The offensive could leave Ukrainian forces more exposed on other parts of the front, where Russia has been slowly adding to the 18% of Ukrainian territory it now controls.
The heaviest fighting is still in the Donetsk region, and Zelenskiy said his forces there would receive more weapons than planned from the next Western support package.
Ukraine's top commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said the Russian town of Sudzha, a transhipment hub for Russian natural gas flowing to Europe via Ukraine, was fully under Ukrainian control. Natural gas was still flowing on Wednesday.
"Sudzha is under Ukrainian control. However, Ukraine has no intention of claiming someone else’s land," the Kyiv foreign ministry said on X.
The Russian rouble fell further against the dollar on Wednesday, for a loss of over 8% since the incursion began.
RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE
The Ukrainian armed forces' losses in the Kursk Region over the past day amounted to 270 military personnel and 16 armored vehicles, including two tanks, while 18 servicemen have surrendered, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.
According to the agency, the enemy has lost upwards of 2,300 military personnel since fighting began in the Kursk Region.
According to Major General Apti Alaudinov, deputy head of the Main Military and Political Department of the Russian Armed Forces and commander of the Akhmat special forces, Russia has stabilized the situation in the region. The blockade of the Ukrainian forces that have entered the country is now being finalized.
TASS has gathered the key facts about the situation.
Situation in the region
- The Russian army foiled Ukraine’s attempts to break through near Skrylevka, Levshinka, Semyonovka, Alekseyevskoye, and Kamyshnoye in the Kursk Region.
- Six Ukrainian attacks were repelled near the settlements of Korenevo, Olgovka, Pogrebki, Russkoe Porechnoye and Cherkesskoe Porechnoye.
- Russian troops took out Ukrainian units and equipment in the areas of Loknya, Kremiany, Oleshnya, Sverdlikova and Daryino.
- The Russian military detected and destroyed two enemy groups in pickup trucks near Martynovka.
- Russian aircraft struck Ukrainian reserves near Yunakovka, Sadki, Miropolye, Hrapovshchyna, Mogritsa and Krovnoye in the Sumy Region.
Ukraine's losses
- Ukraine lost up to 270 servicemen and 16 armored vehicles, including two tanks, a Stryker armored personnel carrier, 13 armored combat vehicles, as well as 10 vehicles and a 122-mm D-30 howitzer, during the past day. Eighteen Ukrainian servicemen were captured.
- During the entire period of fighting in the region, Ukraine lost up to 2,300 servicemen, 37 tanks, 32 armored personnel carriers, 18 infantry fighting vehicles, 192 armored combat vehicles, 88 vehicles, four anti-aircraft missile systems, two multiple rocket launchers and 15 field artillery guns.
Alaudinov's statements
- The situation in the Kursk Region is under the Russian troops' control. The blocking of those Ukrainian formations that have entered the territory is now being completed.
- According to him, the enemy is no longer taking offensive actions in the Kursk direction and has begun to gradually fortify the border areas to avoid being annihilated.
- Russian forces will soon launch a widespread offensive to completely destroy the Ukrainian armed forces in the area.
- The Ukrainian raid was aimed at capturing the Kursk nuclear power plant by August 11. This task was not accomplished.
- Most of the enemy’s equipment has already been destroyed.
- The Ukrainian armed forces do not control Sudzha, despite some reports. Russian Defense Ministry units are in the city; intense clashes with the enemy are underway.
Statements by local authorities
- The authorities and the Russian Armed Forces control the situation in the Belovsky District of the Kursk Region, the head of the district, Nikolay Volobuev, told TASS.
- A temporary lull from the Ukrainian shelling is going on in the Sujansky District. The authorities continue to evacuate citizens whenever possible, its head Alexander Bogachev told TASS.
- The operational situation in the Lgovsky District is stable, with no shelling taking place, the head of the municipality, Sergey Korostelev, told TASS.
Reuters/Tass