Russian forces on Tuesday struck back at Ukrainian troops with missiles, drones and airstrikes in actions that one senior commander said had halted Ukraine’s advance after the biggest attack on sovereign Russian territory since the war began.
Ukrainian soldiers smashed through the Russian border a week ago in a surprise attack that Russian President Vladimir Putin said was aimed at improving Kyiv’s negotiating position ahead of possible talks and slowing the advance of Russian forces along the front. Ukraine carved out a slice of Russian territory, illustrating the weakness of Russia’s border defences and prompting Moscow to evacuate at least 200,000 people while it rushed in reserves and imposed a security lockdown.
Russian war bloggers reported intense battles across the Kursk front as Ukrainian forces tried to expand their control, though they said Russia was bringing in soldiers and heavy weaponry and had repelled many of the Ukrainian attacks.
Russia’s defence ministry published footage of Sukhoi Su-34 bombers striking at what it said were Ukrainian troops in the Kursk border region and of infantry storming Ukrainian positions.
“The uncontrolled ride of the enemy has already been halted,” said Major General Apti Alaudinov, the commander of the Chechen Akhmat special forces unit. “The enemy is already aware that the blitzkrieg that it planned did not work out.”
It was not clear which side was in control of the Russian town of Sudzha, through which Russia pumps gas from Western Siberia through Ukraine and on to Slovakia and other European Union countries. Gazprom said Tuesday it was still pumping gas to Ukraine through Sudzha.
The acting governor of Kursk, Alexei Smirnov, said on Monday that Ukraine controlled 28 settlements in the region, and the incursion was about 12 km deep and 40 km wide.
Ukraine, though, claimed it controlled 1,000 square km (386 square miles) of Russian, more than double what the figures given by Smirnov indicate. Reuters was unable to independently verify the battlefield accounts.