Russia began evacuating thousands more people from its border regions today after Ukraine said it was advancing deeper into the country in a lightning strike aimed at forcing Moscow to slow its advance along the rest of the front, Reuters reported today.
That agency published a photo purportedly showing a person in uniform next to a Russian flag that was thrown to the ground in the village of Vnezapnoe in Kursk Oblast.
She also published a photo in which, according to her, armed persons are seen removing the Russian flag from the building in that village.
The biggest foreign attack on Russia's sovereign territory since World War II unfolded on August 6 when thousands of Ukrainian soldiers breached Russia's western border, embarrassing the top of the Russian military, according to Reuters.
Backed by multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (drones), heavy artillery and tanks, Ukrainian units have since "cut out" part of the world's largest nuclear power, and battles continued Thursday along a front about 18 kilometers inside Russian territory.
The acting governor of Kursk, Alexey Smirnov, said that evacuation is underway in Glushkov district, which has a population of 20.000.
At least 200.000 people have been evacuated from border regions so far, according to Russian data.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday that his forces had advanced several kilometers and that the goal of replenishing the "exchange fund" of prisoners of war had been achieved.
One Ukrainian official said that Kiev is creating a buffer zone to protect its population from attack.
The Russian Defense Ministry announced today that its forces shot down Ukrainian drones over the neighboring Belgorod region of Russia and that Sukhoi-34 bombers targeted Ukrainian positions in Kursk.
The Russian Defense Ministry also reported intense fighting along the Ukrainian front and said its troops had gained better positions at several points.
Reuters reports that while the Ukrainian attack embarrassed Moscow, exposed the weakness of its border defenses and changed the public narrative of the war, Russian officials said what they see as a Ukrainian "invasion" will not change the course of the war.
Russia, which invaded Ukraine in 2022, has been advancing along a 1.000 kilometer front in Ukraine for most of the year and is vastly outnumbered. It controls 18 percent of Ukraine.
Ukraine's incursion into Russia has brought it its biggest battlefield gains since 2022.
On Wednesday, Ukrainian state television broadcast footage showing Ukrainian soldiers removing the Russian flag from an official building in the city of Suja in Russia's Kursk region, Reuters reported.
The video, which state television said was taken on Wednesday, shows a three-story building in the border town of Suja and three Ukrainian soldiers picking up, removing a Russian flag and throwing it to the ground while chanting "Glory to Ukraine."
A state television correspondent in the city said Ukrainian forces were in full control of Suzh, a key gas transshipment hub.
Thousands of Ukrainian soldiers broke through the Russian border in the early hours of August 6 into the western Kursk region. Russian forces have so far failed to drive them out after more than a week of intense fighting. The video also showed a column of burnt Russian vehicles at the entrance to Suža. It also showed empty streets with shops and official buildings undamaged.
Fighting in Russia
The West, which supports Ukraine and has said it will not allow Russian President Vladimir Putin to win the war, has repeatedly said it knows nothing about Ukrainian plans to attack Russia.
Russian officials say they do not believe such statements.
"Of course they are involved," Russian lawmaker Maria Butina told Reuters.
"When I studied in the United States, the main rule was 'don't poke the bear'. What is the West doing today? They are poking the bear," she said.
Putin said on Monday that Ukraine "with the help of its Western masters" aims to improve Kiev's negotiating position ahead of possible peace talks.
Russian officials warned that Moscow would consider it a serious escalation if Western weapons were used on Russian territory.
Major General Apti Alaudinov, who commands Chechen special forces Akhmat, said 12.000 Ukrainian soldiers had crossed into Russia.
Alaudinov said that Ukrainian forces would be expelled.
By bringing the war to Russia, Zelenskiy faces the risk of weakening Kiev's defenses along the Ukrainian front, while Russia has already sent thousands of reservists in an attempt to expel Ukrainian soldiers.
And if Ukraine wants to keep the Russian territory it has seized, it will have to build a sophisticated logistics operation to support its forces, military analysts say, Reuters reports.
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