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.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS