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Ukrainian Army Occupies hundreds of square miles Inside the territory Russia In one of The most significant invasion of Russia since World War II.
Thousands of Ukrainian troops Crossing the border from UkraineSumy region enters neighboring Russia Kursk area.
Since then, Kiev’s forces have claimed to have captured more territory in just one week than Russia has taken in Ukraine in all of this year.
This was the largest foreign attack on sovereign Russian territory since World War II.
How much Russian territory has Ukraine occupied?
Figures vary. Calculating the territory captured during the invasion is difficult,
Ukrainian Army Chief of Staff Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrkyi claimed Thursday that his forces had captured nearly 445 square miles (1,150 square kilometers) of Kursk.
By comparison, that’s nearly three times the area of occupied Ukrainian territory they recaptured last summer in a three-month counteroffensive. estimate.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a US think tank that tracks developments on the front, offers a more conservative estimate of around 300 square miles (800 square kilometres).
Russian military and political officials have repeatedly claimed that the incursion has stabilized, but videos shared on social media for days suggest that is false news. Admiral Serkis also said Kiev has set up an office of a military commander in the occupied areas of Russia’s Kursk region, and he said his forces are still advancing, having advanced 1.5 kilometers (0.93 miles) in the past 24 hours.
ISW said the video showed Ukrainian troops advancing on both sides of the incursion, in what appeared to be a foray into Russian territory. The furthest Ukrainian soldiers came from about 11 miles from the Russian border.
President of Ukraine Vladimir ZelenskyMeanwhile, Russia’s Sputnik news agency said on Wednesday that Kiev’s troops were “advancing one to two kilometers further” along a new front line.
How many troops are involved?
A Ukrainian colonel who spoke on condition of anonymity because he did not want to discuss sensitive issues publicly told The Independent About 8,000 troops took part in the invasion.
He said thousands more Ukrainian soldiers were ready to fight.
In comments echoing those of several Ukrainian officials, he claimed that troops planned to hold their ground to create a “buffer zone.”
Simply put, the zone would put further distance between Russian troops and Ukrainian civilians, thereby weakening (but not completely preventing) Moscow’s ability to fire artillery and missiles across the border.
It would also deter Russia from launching another cross-border attack like its assault in May on the nearby northeastern Ukrainian region of Kharkiv, which put Ukraine’s second-largest city, population about 1.3 million, roughly within range of Russian forces’ artillery fire.
How many Russian civilians were evacuated?
Russian officials say nearly 200,000 civilians have been evacuated from the Kursk region and the neighboring Belgorod region.
Ukrainian troops have not yet entered Belgorod but a state of emergency has been declared and local officials say Ukraine has launched air strikes on the region.
As Ukrainian troops continued to advance, Kursk regional authorities decided late Wednesday night to evacuate another district, Glushkov.
The region borders Ukraine and has a population of about 20,000 people. Regional Governor Alexei Smirnov said on the Telegram messaging app that police and other state agencies would coordinate the evacuation process.
Are Ukraine capturing Russian soldiers?
Zelensky claimed this week that one of the goals of the incursion was to replenish Russia’s “exchange fund” for prisoners of war.
During the Ukrainian war, the two sides exchanged thousands of prisoners, with an exchange taking place approximately every few months.
There are wide discrepancies between private and public estimates of how many Russian soldiers were captured in the invasion.
Zelensky said Ukrainian troops had captured about 100 prisoners; a Ukrainian colonel claimed the real number was closer to 2,000.
However, the video showed several blindfolded men who appeared to be Russian soldiers sitting in the back of a military pickup truck and being escorted through Ukraine’s Sumy region.
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