Russia yesterday ordered more evacuations in a region bordering Ukraine as it battled to contain an unprecedented push onto its territory by Kyiv’s forces.
Ukraine last week sent troops into Russia’s border region of Kursk, in the largest cross-border operation by Kyiv since Moscow launched its offensive more than two years ago.
The assault, which has sent tens of thousands of people fleeing, marked the most significant attack by a foreign army on Russian territory since World War II.
Photo: AFP
A top Ukrainian official said that the operation was aimed at stretching Moscow troops and destabilizing the nation after months of slow Russian advances across the front line.
The assault appeared to catch the Kremlin off guard, with Moscow’s army rushing in reserve troops, tanks, aviation, artillery and drones in a bid to quash it.
Despite the efforts, the army on Sunday conceded that Ukraine had been able to penetrate its territory by up to 30km in places.
In a daily briefing on the situation in the western Kursk region, the Russian Ministry of Defense said that it had “foiled attempts” by Ukraine’s forces to “break through deep into Russian territory” using armored vehicles, but it said that some of those forces were near the villages of Tolpino and Obshchy Kolodez, about 25km and 30km from the Russia-Ukraine border.
A Ukrainian security official said on condition of anonymity that “the aim is to stretch the positions of the enemy, to inflict maximum losses and to destabilize the situation in Russia as they are unable to protect their own border.”
The Ukrainian official also said Russian claims that Kyiv had deployed 1,000 troops were a serious underestimate.
“It is a lot more,” he said. “Thousands.”
Russia yesterday ordered fresh evacuations in the region, moving people from the neighboring region of Belgorod.
“The enemy is active on the border of the Krasnoyaruzhsky District,” Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram. “For the health and security of our population, we’re beginning to move people who live in Krasnoyaruzhsky to safer places.”
On Sunday, each nation blamed the other for a fire at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine occupied by Russian forces, though both sides — and the UN’s nuclear watchdog — said there was no sign of a nuclear leak.
“No impact has been reported for nuclear safety,” said a statement from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which has experts at the site.
Both Kyiv and Moscow said there had been no rise in radiation levels.
In a later statement, the IAEA said it had requested that its team get “immediate access to the cooling tower to assess the damage.”
A Moscow-installed official, Vladimir Rogov, said that the blaze had been “completely extinguished” in a Telegram post yesterday.
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