The secret was well kept and came as a complete surprise. After months of retreating in the face of Russian army assaults to seize territory in eastern Ukraine, Kyiv’s armed forces have opened a new front on the territory of the Russian Federation itself in what appears to be an attempt to upset the course of the war. In just a few days, the Ukrainians have seized a territory comparable to what Russia has conquered in Ukraine since the beginning of 2023. This is a major setback for the Kremlin, which was clearly taken by surprise. At dawn on Saturday, August 10, five days after the daring incursion, fighting was still raging in Russia’s Kursk region.
The situation on the ground remains shrouded in uncertainty. Military experts report rapid advances by the Ukrainian armed forces, who have managed to seize several localities. Telegram channels of Russian military bloggers report that they have penetrated some 15 kilometers into Russian territory. The objectives of this offensive, which is highly risky for Kyiv given the situation on the rest of the front line ravaging Ukraine, are also unclear. Since it was launched, the country’s authorities have refused to comment on the details of the operation, which is taking place some 500 kilometers from Moscow.
On Friday, following repeated assurances over the last few hours that it had succeeded in halting the Ukrainian army’s advance, the Russian Defense Ministry eventually announced that it was sending military reinforcements to the region, where a state of emergency had been declared. “The columns marching to the areas of the tasks include the BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launcher systems, towed artillery guns, tanks (…), heavy tracked vehicles, Ural and KamAZ vehicles,” the ministry said, quoted by news agencies. It also confirmed in a statement that fighting was taking place on the western outskirts of the small town of Sudzha, some 10 kilometers from the border, known as an important transit center for Russian natural gas.
Meanwhile, the mass evacuations of thousands of Russians fleeing the fighting and the advance of the Ukrainian armed forces continued on Friday afternoon. Anticipating an intensification of Russian strikes on the neighboring region of Sumy, from which Kyiv’s fighters have fled, Ukrainian police announced that they would evacuate around 20,000 people from localities close to neighboring territory. In the Donetsk region on Friday, 14 people were killed and dozens wounded in a mid-day bombardment of a supermarket in the town of Kostiantynivka.
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