Ukraine claims more advances, prisoners taken as it presses an incursion into Russia
Ukrainian forces continued their major cross border incursion in Russia’s Kursk Region for a second Wednesday. They claimed to have gained more ground, taken more Russian prisoners, and destroyed a Jet Bomber, while launching a massive air attack, which officials described as a massive assault on Russian military bases.
In a video that was posted on the Telegram channel of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Oleksandr Sryskyi, commander of Ukraine’s military, stated that assault troops have advanced between 1-2 kilometers in certain parts of Kursk since the beginning of the day.
Syrskyi also said that Ukrainian troops took over 100 Russian soldiers as prisoners of war on Wednesday. Zelenskyy stated that they would be exchanged for Ukrainian POWs.
The General Staff of Ukraine said that troops in Kursk had destroyed a Russian Su-34 jet which was used to launch deadly glide bombs on Ukrainian front-line positions as well as cities.
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The Kremlin has been rattled by the surprise Ukrainian assault on Russian soil, which began on August 6. According to military analysts, the daring Kursk attack is the biggest on Russia since World War II. It could include as many as 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers backed up by armor and artillery.
The top Ukrainian military commander claimed that his forces had advanced to 1,000 square kilometers (386 sq miles) in the Kursk area, but it was impossible to independently verify this claim.
According to calculations made by the Institute for the Study of War in Washington, this would mean that the Russians could have captured 1,175 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory between January and July of this year.
Ukraine claimed it had also conducted overnight attacks on Russian airfields from Tuesday into Wednesday, the biggest since the Kremlin began its full-scale invasion of Feb. 2022.
According to The Associated Press, a Ukrainian official of security said that the goal was to reduce Russia’s advantage in air power during the war. He spoke under condition of anonymity as he wasn’t authorized to speak in public.
A spokesperson for the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that Kyiv does not intend to occupy the Russian territory which it claims it holds. He said the goal was to stop Russia firing missiles at Ukraine from Kursk.
Belgorod, a Russian border region near Ukraine, declared a regional state of emergency on Wednesday due to heavy shelling from the Ukrainians. Last Saturday, a federal emergency was declared at Kursk.
Belgorod Gov. Vyacheslav gladkov called the situation “extremely difficult” and “tense”, as the attacks caused homes to be destroyed and civilians killed, and unnerved the local people.
He said that children in particular were being relocated to safety on his Telegram channel. He added that approximately 5,000 kids are in camps in areas of safety. He had said that the day before, around 11,000 people fled their homes and about 1,000 stayed in temporary housing centers.
Ukraine has not yet made it clear when or how they will attempt to regain the territory that they have taken. The Ukrainian military says it controls 74 settlements in the Kursk area, which are believed to be villages and hamlets. Russian officials claim that more than 100,000 people, mostly from Kursk, have been evacuated.
Ukraine’s 1+1 television channel published on Wednesday a video it claimed was from Sudzha – a Russian border town located about 10 kilometers away.
The report shows burned-out Russian military column on the roads of the area, as well as Ukrainian troops distributing humanitarian aid to residents and removing Russian flags from a building.
The dilemma for Russia is whether it should withdraw troops from the front lines in Ukraine’s Donetsk Region, where achieving an offensive breakthrough is a Kremlin war objective, or defend Kursk to stop the incursion.
Biden stated that Tuesday, the events in Russia “create a real dilemna” for Russian president Vladimir Putin. Biden refused to comment on the operation until its conclusion.
The Institute for the Study of War stated that the incursion will not change the dynamics of the conflict.
It said that the Russian authorities would likely be averse to removing Russian military units from Donetsk. They will also likely continue to deploy limited numbers of irregular troops to Kursk, due to fears of further slowing down the pace of Russian operations.
At least, the operation has caused embarrassment to the Kremlin. Russian civilians are still reeling from the attack.
The Associated Press reported on Tuesday from Belgorod that the shelling by Ukraine had increased for 10 days, until Monday.
According to a woman who spoke on condition of anonymity due to security concerns, the number of people in Belgorod openly supporting the war has declined following the intensified Ukrainian attack, she told AP.
The woman stated that “when explosions began near the city and people started dying, and all of this began happening in front of our eyes… and it affected them personally, they at least stopped openly supporting” war.
Zelenskyy said that the Kursk Operation is intended to also lift the spirits of the country after 900 war days and rally the people by making a strong statement about Ukraine’s military capability.
Zelenskyy, in his Tuesday night address, said that “now all of us should act as efficiently and unitedly as we did during the first weeks and month of this war when Ukraine took the lead and began to change the situation for the betterment of our country.”
He said: “Now, we have done exactly the same thing. We have proved once again that Ukrainians are capable of achieving their goals in any circumstance — capable of protecting our interests and independence.”
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