Ukraine, Russia equally claim advances on battlefield in Kursk region

Ukraine and Russia equally claim to have made advances in Russia’s volatile region of Kursk, more than a week after Kiev launched a cross-border attack into Russia’s soil for the first time.

Kiev on Thursday announced that Ukrainian forces had made new advances in their surprise offensive inside the Russian territory, where it claimed that its forces had seized more than a thousand square kilometers.

On August 6, Ukrainian forces mounted a surprise invasion into Russian territory in what was described as Kiev’s biggest attack on Russia’s soil since the Ukraine war started in February 2022. The surprise attack is also the biggest one launched by a foreign army on Russian soil since World War II.

Kiev claimed that it had already taken the control of dozens of settlements and Sudzha, a town eight kilometers from the common border separating Ukraine and Russia.

Oleksandr Syrski, head of the Ukrainian armed forces, said Ukrainian forces advanced 35 kilometers into Russia’s Kursk region and set up an administration office “to maintain law and order and meet the priority needs of the population in the controlled territories.”

“We have taken control of 1,150 square kilometers of territory and 82 settlements,” said the top military commander, whose troops broke months of setbacks for the Ukrainian army last week by launching the landmark cross-border attack, which triggered the evacuation of tens of thousands.

The claim by Ukraine came as Russia also said that its forces had managed to take back a first village from Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region on Thursday, announcing that it was sending “additional forces” to the neighboring Belgorod region.

Moscow has already deployed reinforcement in the region.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement that the army had “completed destruction of the enemy and restored control of the settlement of Krupets.”

Russia forces out invading Ukrainian forces from Martynovka in Kursk region: Chechen commander

A Chechen commander says Russia has recaptured Martynovka in Kursk region from invading Ukrainian forces.

Major General Apti Alaudinov, commander of Chechnya’s Akhmat Special Forces, told Russia’s state news agency RIA on Wednesday that Russian forces had regained control of the settlement of Martynovka in Kursk region.

He added that Ukrainian forces did not have complete control of the town of Sudzha in Kursk region either. The town is home to a pipeline that continues transporting Russian natural gas to Europe despite the ongoing hostilities.

Separately on Wednesday, Alaudinov shared a video on his Telegram channel, claiming that Ukraine had deployed between 11,600 and 11,900 soldiers in Kursk region.

Ukraine has “thrown all of its resources that were more or less operational into the furnace where they won’t escape anymore,” he said.

The Russian military says it has already taken measures to prevent attacks on neighboring regions, particularly Belgorod.

Since the onset of Russia’s military campaign in Donbas in February 2022, the West has flooded Ukraine with an overwhelming supply of Western weapons and ammunition to help strengthen the Kiev forces against Russian troops.

Despite the all-out support for Kiev by the US-led Western countries, the former Soviet republic has failed to gain any militarily-significant objectives in the West's proxy war against Russia. 

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