Russian commander says Ukraine's forces pushing along the border front

[August 15, 2024]  By Guy Faulconbridge and Maxim Rodionov

MOSCOW (Reuters) -A senior Russian commander said on Thursday that Ukrainian forces had been pushed out of one village in Russia's border region but that Kyiv's forces were still probing along the front more than nine days since the lightning incursion into Russia.

The biggest foreign attack on sovereign Russian territory since World War Two unfurled on Aug. 6 when thousands of Ukrainian troops smashed through Russia's western border in an embarrassment for the Russian top military brass.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday that his forces had advanced a few kilometers and that the goal of replenishing an 'exchange fund' of prisoners of war was being achieved. One Ukrainian official said Kyiv was carving out a buffer zone to protect its population against attack.

Major General Apti Alaudinov, who commands Chechnya's Akhmat special forces who are fighting in Kursk, said that Russian forces had forced out Ukraine from Martynovka about 18 km (11 miles) from the border.

"We have burned everything that moves, everything that we have been able to find," Alaudinov told Russian state television from Kursk region, reminding viewers of Russia's defeat of Napoleon's 1812 invasion of Russia.

Alaudinov, a close ally of Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, said that Ukraine was sending in more forces into the Russian region but that the shift in resources was weakening Ukrainian forces at other parts of the front.

"The enemy is pushing, he is trying to get through from everywhere, push through," Alaudinov said, admitting that initiative was still with Ukraine. "But every day the enemy's forces are melting."

The Russian town of Sudzha, a transhipment hub for Russian natural gas flowing to Europe via Ukraine, was not under full Ukrainian control, he said. Ukraine on Wednesday said it was fully under Ukrainian control.

Alaudinov also spoke of the chaotic battlefield situation in the region when his forces arrived shortly after the incursion, with forests teaming with Ukrainian forces and a lack of clarity on whose forces were where.

Ukraine's incursion appeared aimed at forcing Moscow to slow its advance along the rest of the front inside Ukraine, though the Russian defence ministry also reported intense battles along the Ukraine front and said that its troops had taken better positions at several points.

Ukraine said there was no sign Russian military pressure was receding along the eastern front inside its borders on Thursday and reported the heaviest fighting in weeks near Pokrovsk.

GOING INTO RUSSIA

Supported by swarms of drones, heavy artillery and tanks, Ukrainian units have since carved out a sliver of the world's biggest nuclear power and battles were ongoing along a front about 18 km (11 miles) inside Russian territory on Thursday.

Armed personnel pull down a Russian national flag hoisted on a building, following an incursion of Ukrainian troops in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict, in Vnezapnoe, Kursk Region, Russia in this screen grab from social media video released August 14, 2024. Video Obtained by Reuters/via REUTERS

Kursk's acting governor, Alexei Smirnov, said that the Glushkov district, which has a population of 20,000, was being evacuated. At least 200,000 people have so far been evacuated from the border regions, according to Russian data.

Kremlin deputy chief of staff, Sergei Kiriyenko, visited Kurchatov, the town servicing the Kursk nuclear power station which is just 40 km from the fighting.

While the Ukrainian attack has embarrassed Moscow, revealed the weakness of its border defences and changed the public narrative of the war, Russian officials said what they cast as a Ukrainian "invasion" would not change the course of the war.

Russia, which invaded Ukraine in 2022, has been advancing for most of the year along the 1000-km (620-mile) front in Ukraine and has a vast numerical superiority. It controls 18% of Ukraine.

The Ukrainian incursion into Russia has yielded its biggest battlefield gains since 2022.

FIGHTING IN RUSSIA

The West, which backs Ukraine and has said it will not allow President Vladimir Putin to win the war, has repeatedly said it knew nothing of the Ukrainian plans to attack Russia. Russian officials say they do not believe such statements.

"Of course they are involved," Russian lawmaker Maria Butina told Reuters. "When I studied in the United States the main rule was: 'Don't poke the bear'. What the West is doing today? They are poking the bear."

Putin said on Monday that Ukraine "with the help of its Western masters" was aiming to improve Kyiv's negotiating position ahead of possible peace talks.

Russia's defence ministry published footage which it said showed a Russian drone destroying a U.S.-made Stryker armoured combat vehicle in the Kursk region. Russian officials have warned that if Western weapons were used on Russian territory, then Moscow would consider that a grave escalation.

By bringing the war to Russia, Zelenskiy faces the risk of weakening Kyiv's defences along the front in Ukraine while Russia has already sent in thousands of reserves in a bid to expel the Ukrainian soldiers.

And if Ukraine wants to hold the Russian territory it has taken, it will need to build a sophisticated logistics operation to support its forces, military analysts said.

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge in Moscow and Maxim Rodionov in London; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

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