Vladimir Putin meets ministers after Ukraine’s incursion into the Kursk region in southwest Russia, August 7, 2024

Wednesday’s Coverage: A Ukrainian Raid Into Russia’s Kursk Region

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1839 GMT:

German-supplied equipment may be used in Ukraine’s “completely legitimate” incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, the Bundestag’s Defense Committee chair Marcus Faber has said.

Russian officials have claimed that German armored personnel vehicles were involved in the cross-border raid which began Tuesday and has advanced up to 15 km (9.3 miles) into southwest Russia.

“With the handover to Ukraine, these are Ukrainian weapons,” Faber told a German newspaper.

He indicated that this applies to all material, including Leopard 2 tanks: “With the Russian attack on Ukraine, the territory of both states is a war zone. The use of the weapons is subject to the provisions of international law.”

UPDATE 1830 GMT:

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has alluded to Ukraine’s cross-border raid into the Kursk region in southwest Russia.

At an event to unveil a new military app, Zelenskiy said, “Everyone can see that the Ukrainian army knows how to surprise.”

He followed up in his nightly video address to the nation, “Russia brought the war to our land and should feel what it has done….We strive to achieve our goals as soon as possible in peacetime – under just peace conditions.”

Russian officials have declared a state of emergency in Kursk. Around 3,000 civilians have been evacuated, and three train stations have been closed.

Gen. Apti Alaudinov, commander of Chechnya’s Akhmat special forces, acknowledged that the Ukrainian military had “advanced well into our territory, around 10 km”.

The situation is not irreversible, nothing supernatural has happened….Yes, our men have died, that’s a fact. The enemy has entered several settlements.

UPDATE 1122 GMT:

At least two civilians have been killed and 15 injured in Russian attacks across Ukraine over the past 24 hours.

The fatalities were in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine with injuries in the Donetsk, Kherson, and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

The Ukraine Air Force said it intercepted all four Iran-type attack drones and four missiles fired by Russia overnight.

UPDATE 1116 GMT:

Ukrainian Presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak has spoken on national TV about the cross-border raid into the Kursk region in southwest Russia:

Will the events in this or that Russian border region have a psychological impact on [Russian] society? They will, without a doubt.

When you increase Russian losses…when you ramp up their war costs, such as destroyed military equipment, lost territory, lost people, will this affect how they perceive their war? Without a doubt.

The Russian Defense Ministry continues to insist that “the enemy has been prevented from advancing”.

UPDATE 0719 GMT:

Russia has tortured 95% of Ukrainian prisoners of war, says the head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, Danielle Bell.

Bell told the Dutch TV channel NOS:

They are tortured during the first interrogation.. They are beaten with metal rods and sticks and subjected to severe electric shocks. They are stripped naked.

It is horrible. It is the worst I have seen in my 20-year career, visiting prisoners on behalf of the UN. Torture is widespread and systematic.

95% of Ukrainian prisoners of war have been tortured, and this constitutes a war crime.

The deputy commander of a Ukrainian brigade said on Wednesday that Russian authorities tortured and “brutally killed” one of his soldiers in a pre-trial detention center in the Rostov region in southwest Russia.

Bell said of Ukrainian treatment of Russian POWs:

The Ukrainian authorities provide us with unrestricted access to camps and temporary prisons holding prisoners of war. Although there were some issues at the beginning of the invasion, over the last 1.5 years, we have observed conditions that comply with the humanitarian law of war.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Ukraine’s two-day raid into the Kursk region in southwest Russia has “penetrated at least two Russian defensive lines and a stronghold”, according to the US-based Institute for the Study of War.

The ISW, citing geolocated footage, says Tuesday’s cross-border assault has made confirmed advances up to 10 km (6.2 miles). Russian military observers report an incursion of at least 15 km (9.3 miles), with possible occupation of up to 11 settlements along a 10-km front. One “Russian insider source” claimed the raiders have seized 45 square km (17.4 square miles) of territory.

Fighting was reported on Wednesday evening on the outskirts of the village of Korenovo and the town of Sudzha. Several Russian sources said Ukrainian forces have captured the Sudzha checkpoint and the Sudzha gas distribution station. Geolocated footage indicated heavy damage at the checkpoint, with the Ukrainians capturing 40 Russian troops.

Map: Institute for the Study of War

Vladimir Putin showed his concern with the declaration of Ukraine’s “large-scale provocation”. After meetings with the State Security Council, Russia’s military commander-in-chief Gen. Valery Gerasimov, and other senior officials, he instructed First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov and regional authorities to coordinate assistance in the Kursk region.

Gerasimov said Ukraine attacked with around 1,000 troops. He insisted that the situation as largely under control, with the advance checked and the Ukrainians suffering significant casualties.

However, the Russian Defense Ministry withdrew its initial statement that the attackers were just a sabotage and reconnaissance group, and that they had retreated across the border.

While maintaining that the situation is “under [Putin’s] personal control”, Kursk Governor Alexei Smirnov said several thousand civilians have been evacuated.

The US Government said it had no advance knowledge of the raid. Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters, “We’re going to reach out to the Ukrainian military to learn more about their objectives”, saying the Biden Administration supports “common sense” actions by Ukraine to stop attacks by Russian forces.

State Department Matthew Miller pushed back against Putin, “I have seen the statements from the Russian government. It is a little bit rich, them calling it a provocation, given Russia violated Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.”