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Russian forces retaliated against Ukrainian troops using missiles, drones, and airstrikes, a senior commander reported on Tuesday, claiming that Ukraine’s advance had been stopped following the most significant assault on Russian territory since the conflict began.
Thousands of Ukrainian soldiers launched a surprise incursion across the Russian border last week, which Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested was intended to strengthen Kyiv’s position in potential negotiations and to impede the progress of Russian forces at the front.
The Ukrainian troops secured a portion of Russian land, prompting Moscow to evacuate nearly 200,000 people while deploying reinforcements.
Russian military bloggers described fierce combat across the Kursk front as Ukrainian forces attempted to expand their control. However, they also noted that Russia was deploying additional troops and heavy weaponry, successfully repelling numerous Ukrainian attacks.
Russia’s defense ministry released footage showing Sukhoi Su-34 bombers attacking what it identified as Ukrainian forces in the Kursk border area and claimed it had thwarted assaults on villages approximately 26-28 km (16-17 miles) from the border.
Over the course of the week-long battle, Russian forces reported the destruction of 35 Ukrainian tanks, 31 armored personnel carriers, 18 infantry fighting vehicles, and 179 other armored vehicles.
Major General Apti Alaudinov, the commander of the Chechen Akhmat special forces unit, stated that Ukraine’s rapid advance had been stopped, and that the Ukrainian forces realised their planned blitzkrieg had failed.
The control of the Russian town of Sudzha, through which Russia transports gas from Western Siberia to Ukraine and then on to Slovakia and other EU countries, remained unclear. On Tuesday, Gazprom reported that it was still delivering gas to Ukraine through Sudzha.
Kursk’s acting governor, Alexei Smirnov, announced on Monday that Ukraine had taken control of 28 settlements in the region, with the incursion stretching about 12 km deep and 40 km wide. Meanwhile, Ukraine claimed it had captured 1,000 square km (386 square miles) of Russian territory, more than double the area indicated by Russian reports.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Western leaders pledged to help Ukraine defeat Russian forces and reclaim its territory. In 2022, Ukraine regained substantial territory, but its 2023 counteroffensive failed to breach heavily fortified Russian defenses. This year, Russian forces have been making gains deeper into Ukrainian territory, with Russia now controlling nearly one-fifth of the land internationally recognised as Ukraine.
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