Ukrainian intelligence sources say thousands of troops have been deployed to the Russian advance, which appears to be making gradual progress six days into the offensive, with reports of fighting 15-18 miles inside the border and rare video showing the capture of a border village in a new part of the front line.
Ukrainian security officials told AFP the aim of the incursion was to destabilise Russia and confuse Russian forces with a light attack, though it is unclear how sustainable the operation would be in the medium term given Kremlin threats to repel attacks with Russian reserve forces.
Russia had suggested that a few hundred Ukrainian troops had launched a surprise attack on Tuesday, but Ukrainian officials said the numbers involved were much higher. Asked whether more than 1,000 Ukrainian troops were involved, the official said “much more…several thousand.”
According to various sources, the operation is said to have involved several Ukrainian brigades, with Kiev catching Russia by surprise by attacking a lightly defended part of the front line that has not seen significant fighting since spring 2022, breaching its limited border defences.
“We are going on the offensive. Our aim is to expand the enemy’s positions, inflict maximum damage and destabilize the situation in Russia so that it is unable to defend its own borders,” the security official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Ukrainian leaders and the military have said little about the aims of the invasion, but it is widely believed to be aimed at relieving pressure on the eastern Donbas front, where Russian forces are steadily advancing, and demonstrating to Russia and Ukraine’s Western backers that it is still capable of launching a successful offensive.
The Russian Defense Ministry said it had thwarted attacks by Ukrainian “mobile forces” on three villages northeast of Korenvo – Trupino, Zhuravl and Obshchiy Kolodez – all 15 to 18 miles from the border, among the farthest reaches of the Russian invasion.
A pro-Ukrainian Telegram channel also published a video showing soldiers hoisting flags on a building in the village of Guyebo, a few miles from the Russian border and about seven miles south of Suzha, one of the first towns reached during the invasion.
On Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky finally directly acknowledged the invasion of Kursk Oblast, the first time that Kiev’s regular troops have attacked inside Russian soil since the Kremlin launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022.
“Today I received some information from the Commander in Chief. [Oleskandr] “I would like to ask President Shirsky to give his opinion on the front line and on our actions in pushing the war into the aggressor’s territory,” he said late Saturday. “Ukraine has certainly proven that it can restore justice and is certainly exerting exactly the necessary pressure – pressure on the aggressors.”
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused Kiev of engaging in a “terrorist campaign” aimed at inflicting fear on ordinary Russians. “We fully understand that these acts of barbarism make no sense from a military point of view, but Russia continues to repay the debt it owes to its masters,” she added.
Kursk Oblast’s acting governor, Alexei Smirnov, said missile fragments hit an apartment building, wounding 15 people. Zakharova said the Ukrainian military had launched a “massive missile attack” on the city of Kursk, one of which passed through the city, causing the casualties.
Russian forces appear set to defend Kursk with a mix of conscripted border guards, units from other regional armies and forces “redeployed from Ukraine’s lower-priority frontline areas,” according to an analysis published overnight by the Institute for the Study of War think tank, which said the analysis was likely to exacerbate “the confusion of Russia’s chosen response.”
The think tank added that command of efforts to thwart the invasion of Ukraine has likely been transferred to Russia’s domestic security service, the FSB, after the Kremlin declared the response a “counterterrorism operation” on Friday. Under Russian federal law, the military is subordinate to the head of counterterrorism operations, according to ISW.
Meanwhile, an overnight missile attack near Kyiv killed a man and his four-year-old son, emergency officials said. Explosions rang out in central and eastern Kyiv on Saturday night, and the Ukrainian Air Force said two Russian missiles were heading towards the city.
The Ukrainian Air Force said on Sunday it had destroyed 53 of 57 attack drones launched by Russia in a nighttime airstrike that was destroyed across Ukraine and which also included four North Korean-made missiles, the air force said.
“According to preliminary information, Russia used a North Korean missile in this attack – another deliberate terrorist attack against Ukraine,” Zelensky wrote on social media. “Fireworks experts are still working to determine the exact data about the missile.”
