Ukrainian troops in the village of Poroz in the Belgorod region in western Russia, August 10, 2024

Saturday’s Coverage: Russia’s Mass Murder At A Supermarket In The East

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1449 GMT:

Ukraine’s air defenses downed 53 of 57 Iran-type attack drones launched by Russia overnight.

The Russians also fired four North Korean KN-23 ballistic missiles.

Eight civilians were killed and 30 injured in the Russian attacks, including a father and his 4-year-old slain in the Kyiv region by fragments of a North Korean missile (see 0656 GMT and 1020 GMT).

UPDATE 1431 GMT:

A Ukraine security official has said of the incursion into southwest Russia, “We are on the offensive. 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.”

Asked about the inital claim of Russia’s military commander-in-chief Gen. Valery Gerasimov that around 1,000 Ukrainian troops were involved, the official said, “It is a lot more….Thousands.”

The Russian claim was soon exposed when the Defense Ministry claimed 1,000 Ukranian casualties — every single soldier — even as Ukraine was advancing in the Kursk region.

The Ukraine security official said the incursion has “greatly raised our morale, the morale of the Ukrainian army, state and society”: “This operation has shown that we can go on the offensive, move forward. It seems that the Russians have problems with coordination, preparedness for action.

He said of the effect on Russia’s 10-month offensive in eastern Ukraine: “The situation is basically unchanged. Their pressure in the east continues, they are not pulling back troops from the area.”

He added that “the intensity of Russian attacks has gone down a little bit”.

Contrasting Ukraine’s military maneuvers with those of Russia, he said, “There is no idea of annexation….We are operating in strict accordance with international law.” He referred to the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant near the border, “We absolutely will not cause problems for nuclear security. This we can guarantee.”

UPDATE 1020 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy says “preliminary information” indicates Russia used a North Korean missile in a strike on Kyiv which killed a a 35-year-old father and his 4-year-old son and wounded three other civilians (see 0656 GMT).

Zelenskiy posted on social media that “pyrotechnic experts are still working to determine the exact data regarding this missile”.

The President noted that Russian forces launched more than 30 missiles and more than 800 guided aerial bombs across Ukraine in the past week.

Ukrainians are deeply grateful to all our partners who provide us with air defense systems and combat aircraft. However, to truly stop Russian terror, we need not only a full-fledged air shield that can protect all our cities and communities, but also strong decisions from our partners — decisions that will lift restrictions on our defensive actions. When Ukraine’s long-range capabilities have no limits, this war will definitely have a limit — we will truly bring its just end closer.

UPDATE 0941 GMT:

Ukraine’s forces are now operating more than 20 miles inside southwest Russia in some areas, along a front around 40 miles wide.

Video of troops raising the Ukrainian flag in the village of Guevo in the Kursk region.

UPDATE 0656 GMT:

Eight civilians have been killed and 30 injured by Russian attacks over the past 24 hours.

Russia targeted 11 regions: Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Luhansk, Sumy, Cherkasy, Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv, Kherson, Kharkiv, and Donetsk. Casualties were reported in the latter seven.

Two civilians — a 35-year-old father and his 4-year-old son — have been killed and three others wounded by an overnight missile attack on the Kyiv region.

Missile fragments fell on residential buildings in the Brovary area. The bodies of the father and son were found under rubble during search and rescue operations.

A 13-year-old was among the wounded.

Ukraine air defenses downed around 10 Iran-type attack drones over the region. The Russians also launched Iskander-M or North Korean KN-23 ballistic missiles.

In Kherson city in southern Ukraine, Russian attacks injured 11 civilians, including a 15-year-old boy.

A 74-year-old man is in serious condition. The teenager and most of the other victims are moderately wounded.

In the Kharkiv region in northeast Ukraine, an 87-year-old man was killed in Kupyansk.

The roof of an administrative building was set on fire. Eight houses and a power line were damaged.

A Sunday morning attack on an infrastructure facility in Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region injured four people. One is in serious condition and undergoing surgery.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: For the first time, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has acknowledged the five-day incursion into the Kursk region in southwest Russia.

In his nightly address to the nation, Zelenskiy said he had discussed with Ukraine’s military commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi about “pushing the war into the aggressor’s territory”.

Thanking troops, he summarized, “Ukraine is proving that it can really bring justice and guarantees exactly the kind of pressure that is needed – pressure on the aggressor.”

Ukrainian forces initally advanced up to 15 km (9.3 miles) inside the Kursk region, moving into up to 11 settlements, including the small town of Sudzha, and a gas distribution statement. On Saturday, troops filmed themselves in the village of Poroz in the Belgorod region.

The Ukrainians also destroyed a column of Russian military vehicles near Rylsk in Kursk, around 30 km (19 miles) from the border. The Ukrainian military claimed 490 Russian troops were killed.

Map: Institute for the Study of War

Russia’s Defense Ministry declared that defenders have prevented a further Ukrainian advance, amid fighting in three villages between 7 and 11 miles from the border – Ivashkovskoye, Malaya Loknya and Olgovka.

But the claim of the Ministry, which had said on Wednesday that Ukraine’s forces had retreated back across the border, was undermined by new orders from Russian officials.

An official from Russia’s Regional Emergency Situations Ministry said, “More than 76,000 people have been temporarily relocated to safe places.” Kursk Governor Alexei Smirnov said on Sunday that he instructed district officials to “speed up” the implementation of the evacuation orders.

Officials introduced a “counter-terrorism operation regime” in the Belgorod, Bryansk, and Kursk regions. Civilian movement is restricted, vehicles can be seized, phone calls can be monitored, areas may be declared no-go zones, checkpoints have been introduced, and security is heightened at key infrastructure sites.

They said at least 13 people were injured in Kursk city, about 80 miles from the border, when debris from an intercepted Ukrainian missile fell onto a nine-story residential building.