The Ministry of Defense of Russia announced today that its forces prevented the Ukrainian advance in the Kursk region, Russian news agencies reported today, as reported by the Reuters agency.
The former president of Russia and the current deputy head of the country's Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, called on Russian troops to push deeper into Ukraine after Moscow said it had intercepted Ukrainian drones and missiles targeting the Kursk region, Radio Free Europe (RSE) reported. .
Alexei Smirnov, the acting governor of the Russian region, declared a state of emergency on August 7 because of a Ukrainian ground offensive that Moscow says was carried out with the support of tanks, armored vehicles and artillery.
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The Russian Ministry of Defense also stated today that it shot down six drones and five missiles over Kursk and 14 drones over Belgorod Oblast, RSE reports.
Regional Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov announced today on his Telegram channel that a man was killed in the Ukrainian shelling of the city of Shebekin in the Belgorod Region in Russia, Reuters reported.
He added that another civilian was wounded.
During the war, Belgorod was exposed to frequent shelling and drone attacks from Ukraine. It is located next to the Kursk region.
Medvedev, commenting on the Ukrainian incursion into the Kursk region, said that Moscow should aim further than securing territories that Russia considers its own and called for further progress in the Ukrainian Odesa, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv and Kyiv regions.
Russian President Vladimir Putin previously accused Kiev of firing rockets at civilian and residential targets in the region, while Russian pro-war bloggers reported that Ukrainian forces had captured several villages as they advanced into Russian territory.
Putin, speaking during the broadcast of the government session on August 7, said that the Ukrainian military operation is "another large-scale provocation."
The chief of the Russian army's general staff, General Valery Gerasimov, told Putin that Russian forces had stopped the advance of up to 1.000 Ukrainian soldiers.
Ukrainian officials have not commented on the reported incursion into Kursk, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on August 7 that it was important to continue destroying the enemy "as precisely as our soldiers know and as effectively as it gives results".
"The greater the pressure on Russia, the closer peace is," he said. "Just peace through just force. I thank everyone who ensures it."
European Union (EU) spokesman Peter Stano told Radio Free Europe's Ukrainian service that while the EU does not comment on battlefield operations, it believes that "Ukraine has a legal right to defend itself, including strikes against an aggressor on its territory."
US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said it was up to Ukraine to answer questions about its operations, adding that "nothing has changed" regarding US policy that prohibits strikes inside Russia using weapons supplied by it. US, except against "imminent threat only across the border".
US State Department spokesman Matthew Mueller confirmed on August 7 that Washington's policy on the use of US weapons by Ukraine across the border or against Russian military facilities has not changed.
"The actions that are taking place do not constitute a violation of our policy," Miller added.
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