Russian army continued fighting with Ukrainian soldiers for the third day on Thursday. Ukrainian soldiers breached the Russian border in Kursk area. About 1,000 Ukrainian troops crossed the Russian border with tanks and armored vehicles on the morning of August 6, according to Russian officials, in one of the largest Ukrainian attacks on Russia in the two-year-old war. Who were surrounded by swarms of drones and heavy artillery in the air.
Fierce fighting has been reported near the city of Sudzha, where Russian natural gas flows into Ukraine, raising fears of a sudden halt to transit flows to Europe. Nearly two and a half years after Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his troops into Ukraine in February 2022, this intrusion is a blow to Russia.
Putin has described the Ukrainian attack as a ‘big provocation’. Sergei Mironov, leader of a political party loyal to the Kremlin, called it a “terrorist attack” and an “invasion of internationally recognized foreign territory.”
‘Residents are being evacuated…’
Kursk regional acting governor Alexei Smirnov said that thousands of residents have been evacuated. The White House said the US had no prior information about the attack and would seek more information from Kiev. Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Thursday that the army and the Federal Security Service (FSB) have blocked Ukraine and are fighting Ukrainian units in the Kursk area.
The Northern Group of Forces, together with Russia’s FSB, continue to destroy armed formations of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Sudzhensky and Korenevsky districts of the Kursk region, adjacent to the Russian-Ukrainian border, the ministry said. .
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The Ukrainian military has remained silent on the Kursk offensive, although President Zelensky on Thursday praised the Ukrainian military for its ability to ‘surprise’ and achieve results. He did not mention Kursk clearly.
turning point of war
Ukraine’s Energy Minister said that gas transit through Sudzha is still working. Most EU countries have reduced their dependence on Russian gas, but Austria is one country that still gets most of its gas through Ukraine.
Ukraine is worried
The fighting comes at a critical juncture in the conflict, the largest land war in Europe since World War II. Kiev is worried that if Republican Donald Trump wins the presidential election in November, US support could weaken.
While Donald Trump has said he would end the war, both Russia and Ukraine are eager to gain the strongest possible bargaining position on the battlefield. Ukraine wants to stop the Russian army, which controls 18 percent of its territory.
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Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said the Ukrainian attack was an attempt to force Russia to divert resources from the front and show the West that Ukraine could still fight. After the Kursk offensive, Russia should expand its war aims to capture all of Ukraine.