LAST UPDATE | 15 Aug
UKRAINE HAS CLAIMED fresh advances in its offensive into Russia, saying it had seized over 1,100 square kilometres in the biggest attack by a foreign army on Russian soil since World War II.
Russia said it had recaptured a first village from Ukrainian forces in the Kursk border region and announced it was sending “additional forces” to the neighbouring Belgorod region.
Ukraine said it now controlled dozens of settlements and Sudzha, a town eight kilometres from the border.
“We have taken control of 1,150 square kilometres of territory and 82 settlements,” said top military commander Oleksandr Syrsky.
Ukrainian troops launched the offensive on 6 August, breaking months of setbacks for the army that has been battling a Russian invasion for more than two years.
The top general also told President Volodymyr Zelenskyy the army had set up an administrative office “to maintain law and order and meet the priority needs of the population in the controlled territories”.
Zelenskyy announced “the completion of the liberation of the town of Sudzha from the Russian military”.
At an Orthodox church in the centre of Sumy, the regional hub across the border from Kursk, dozens of mourners gathered to pay their final respects to six Ukrainian soldiers killed in the offensive.
Tearful family members received a steady stream of friends and relatives wearing black and clutching wreaths as the priest intoned a funeral mass and incense hung in the air.
“It is hard to say goodbye to them, because we want them to live forever, to live among us as honoured sons of their homeland,” the priest told mourners.
“Our task is to pray for our heroic fighters and their families.”
Pallbearers lifted the coffins one by one for burial as a choir sang hymns. Air raid sirens echoed over Sumy as the service ended.
In Kursk, AFP reporters saw around 500 evacuees from border areas queueing for food and clothes being distributed by the Russian Red Cross.
The assault took Russian troops by surprise and triggered mass evacuations. Russia says more than 120,000 people have left or been evacuated.
The fighting has killed at least 12 civilians and wounded 121 others according to Russian authorities, who have not released a toll since Monday.
Moscow scrambled reinforcements and announced the recapture of a first village in the Kursk region today.
Russia’s defence ministry said the army had “completed destruction of the enemy and restored control of the settlement of Krupets”.
The Russian army also announced measures to prevent attacks on neighbouring regions, particularly Belgorod.
Russia has prepared “concrete actions” to defend Belgorod from Ukrainian attacks, Defence Minister Andrei Belousov said at a meeting with officials including Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.
They include “the allocation of additional forces”.
Kursk and Belgorod have seen small incursions since President Vladimir Putin launched Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, but nothing on this scale.
Ukrainian officials have argued the offensive was an act of “self-defence” and experts suggest it could be aimed at alleviating pressure from the eastern front.
Ukrainian troops are still struggling in the eastern Donbas region, a key Russian target.
“Most Russian attacks are taking place” in the Donbas, Zelenskyy said, adding: “We are paying maximum defensive attention.”
Local authorities in three Ukrainian regions reported at least five civilian deaths in Russian strikes, including Donetsk in the east, Kharkiv in the northeast and Kherson in the south.
Russia said its forces had captured Ivanivka in Donetsk, a frontline village just 15 kilometres from the Kyiv-held transport hub of Pokrovsk in east Ukraine.
Pokrovsk lies on the intersection of a key road that supplies Ukrainian troops and towns across the eastern front and has long been a Russian target.
In a briefing, Russia’s defence ministry said its army had “liberated the village of Ivanovka”, using the Russian name for the village.
Russian forces have been inching towards Pokrovsk for months, taking a string of villages on the way to the city outskirts.
With reporting by © AFP 2024
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