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The Power of Ukraine Controls 1,000 square kilometers of federal territory Russiawhich includes 24 townsas Intrusion The commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Oleksandr Syrsky, announced on Monday, August 12, in the Kursk border region.
Hirschi made the statement in a video broadcast by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky via Telegram, in which the two men made the first explicit reference to the offensive launched seven days ago.
So far, there is little official data on the extent of the invasion, although it will last a week, this Tuesday, the 13th. Several military analysts estimate that Kiev has so far controlled an area of around 400 square kilometers.
The figure of 1,000 square kilometers under Ukrainian control demonstrates the success of the Kiev offensive: this expansion is equivalent to the area of territory that Russia has captured in Ukraine since the beginning of 2024 in fierce fighting with numerically superior forces. The attack was also the largest attack on Russian territory since World War II.
Zelensky posted on Telegram on Monday that the war cabinet held a meeting to discuss “defense operations on the front and operations in the Kursk region.”
“Among other things, the interior minister, other government officials and Ukrainian security services were instructed to develop a humanitarian plan for the area of operations,” Also written in X.
exist Additional Videoscan be seen giving the floor to Jean Syrsky, who joined the meeting via video conference.
“Mr. President of Ukraine, Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine: I will continue to conduct offensive operations on the territory of the Kursk Region. “We currently control about 1,000 square kilometers of the territory of the Russian Federation.”the colonel reported.
The officer later added: “The troops are carrying out their assigned tasks, fighting is actually continuing across the front and the situation is under control.”
The Ukrainian army has so far kept its surprise operation in southern Russia almost completely secret. But videos have emerged on Ukrainian social media showing Ukrainian soldiers capturing Russian prisoners and planting Ukrainian flags at several locations, including the offices of Russian gas giant Gazprom and the village of Gevo.
Alexey Smirnov, acting governor of the Kursk region, said on Monday: Ukrainian troops control 28 towns, home to about 2,000 people.
The governor said Kiev’s troops had penetrated a 40-kilometer-wide strip of land and reached a depth of 12 kilometers, while Ukrainian analysts put the depth at between 30 and 35 kilometers.
He explained that the main difficulty of the confrontation was that “there was no clear front line and no knowledge of the location of enemy forces.”
Earlier, Russian military bloggers reported that Ukrainian mobile sabotage groups that are difficult to track and capable of causing chaos among the Russian army are active in the region, in response to which the National Anti-Terrorism Committee announced punitive action.
The fact is, seven days later, More than 121,000 people have been evacuated from the area, with another 60,000 waiting to be relocated.According to Smirnov, a total of 12 civilians were killed and 121 injured.
although, The Russian Ministry of Defense reported today in a military report that it repelled seven Ukrainian attacks in the area around the city of Sudjacould be one of Ukraine’s targets, as it is home to gas meters, from which natural gas is transported through Ukraine to EU countries.
In the neighboring Bryansk and Belgorod regionswho received the most severe punishment throughout the war, They are concerned about Ukrainian progress in Kursk.
Bryansk Oblast Governor Alexander Bogomas assured Putin that the situation was “stable,” while Belgorod Oblast Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov lamented the “sudden deterioration of the situation” with Ukrainians launching more artillery, mortar, missile and drone attacks.
At a special meeting on the situation in the border areas, Putin responded that “the enemy will continue to try to destabilize the situation in the border areas” and warned that “if today (…) the situation is relatively calm, it does not mean that it will be the same tomorrow”, so he called for preparations for any situation.
He also pointed out that the most important task now is to “expel the enemy from our territory and ensure the security of the state borders together with the border guards.”
“There is no doubt that the enemy will receive a worthy response and all set objectives will be achieved,” he concluded.
Institute for the Study of War (ISW) Your daily reportPointing out that geo-located imagery and Russian and Ukrainian reports from August 10-11 “indicate that Ukrainian troops are advancing westward and northwestward in the Kursk region, although Russian sources mainly indicate that Russian troops have stabilized the situation. Russian bloggers claim that Ukrainian offensive activity has decreased in the Kursk region and that no major changes have occurred on the front line.”
Speaking about Russia’s response to an enemy offensive, he noted that “the hastily assembled and dispersed Russian forces (…) consist of Russian units that may be undermanned and ill-prepared to establish the command and control structures necessary to coordinate operations.”
Kostyantyn Mashovets, a Ukrainian military observer, said Russian troops would redeploy 10 to 11 battalions from across the theater to the Kursk region by Sunday. “But this suggests that the final strength of these forces is lower than expected, which could further confuse the Russian response,” he said.
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