A building in the village of Sudzha burns amid an incursion of Ukrainian troops into the Kursk region in southwest Russia, August 7, 2024

Thursday’s Coverage: Raid Into SW Russia “Penetrates 2 Defensive Lines and A Stronghold”

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 2116 GMT:

Special forces killed around 30 Russian soldiers and destroyed six armored vehicles during a raid the occupied Kinburn Spit in southern Ukraine, says Ukrainian military intelligence service HUR.

The Kinburn Spit at the mouth of the Dnipro River, south of Kherson city.

The airborne operation carried troops supported by Ukraine’s Navy. They hoisted an HUR flag on the Spit.

UPDATE 2110 GMT:

The toll has risen to 14 killed and 43 injured from Russia’s strike on a supermarket in Kostiantynivka in the Donetsk region early Friday.

In his nightly address to the nation, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said:

Russia always knows exactly where its missiles strike; this is a deliberate and targeted act of Russian terror. Another war crime for which the occupiers will be held accountable. They will answer before the courts and history, and they are already answering to the strength of our warriors.

UPDATE 2103 GMT:

Ukraine police say about 20,000 people are being evacuated from settlements in the Sumy region in the north of the country, across the border from the Ukrainian incursion into Russia’s Kursk region.

Russia is stepping up aerial attacks, including with guided aerial bombs, on Sumy’s territory near the border.

The evacuation is from settlements within a 10-km (6.2-mile) zone under Russian fire.

UPDATE 2058 GMT:

The US has announced another $125 million in military assistance for Ukraine.

The package includes ammunition for HIMARS systems, 155-mm and 105-mm artillery ammunition, Stinger missiles, Javelin and AT-4 anti-tank systems, and TOW anti-tank guided missiles.

The Pentagon is also providing multi-purpose radar stations, high mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicle ambulances, small arms ammunition, explosive munitions, equipment to protect critical national infrastructure, and spare parts.

UPDATE 2054 GMT:

Soldiers of Ukraine’s 61st Brigade at the offices of the Russian energy company Gazprom near Sudzha in the Kursk region, six miles inside Russia.

The facility is around 1.4 miles from the town center.

After fighting for the area since Tuesday, the men proclaim, “The city is under the control of armed forces of Ukraine and quiet.”

UPDATE 1859 GMT:

Footage of the Ukrainian destruction of the Russian convoy of military vehicles in the Rylsk district of the Kursk region, around 30 km (19 miles) from the border (see 0929 GMT):

UPDATE 1314 GMT:

The toll has risen to 11 killed and 37 injured from Russia’s strike on a supermarket in Kostiantynivka in the Donetsk region early Friday.

Donetsk Governor Vadym Filashkin initially said the Russians had shelling the civilian site, but later said that it was hit by a Russian Kh-38 missile.

A freight department of Nova Poshta, Ukraine’s largest postal service was also damaged.

UPDATE 1101 GMT:

Russian officials say Ukraine’s incursion into the Kursk region in southwest Russia is seen by Vladimir Putin as a personal “slap in the face”.

An official “involved in preparing Kremlin events involving Putin” says, “The chief was in a poor mood….He probably hasn’t been seen like this since we were forced to retreat from Kherson [in southern Ukraine] in the fall of 2022.”

Several officials who have long known the Russian leader said Putin’s facial expressions during his public appearances on Wednesday and Thursday indicated that he was “dissatisfied” and “annoyed” with the situation.

UPDATE 1043 GMT:

The US Department of Defense has said that Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region is “consistent with our policy”.

Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said:

We have supported Ukraine from the very beginning to defend themselves against attacks that are coming from across the border and for the need for crossfires.

UPDATE 1026 GMT:

The death toll has risen to four, with 24 injured, from Russia’s artillery strike on a supermarket in Kostiantynivka in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine (see 0740 GMT).

Searches continue for other victims in the rubble.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said a post office was also struck.

Presidential Chief of Staff Andrii Yermak posted, “The attack against the supermarket in Kostiantynivka is another case of Russian terror. Warfare against civilians is all they can do.”

UPDATE 0929 GMT:

Claimed footage of a destroyed column of Russian military vehicles in the Rylsk district of the Kursk region:

Rylsk is about about 30 km (19 miles) from the Ukraine border and 20 km (12.5 miles) from the village of Koreneve, where fighting has been reported.

Military analyst Yan Matveyev assesses

that 14 Ural and KamAZ tarpaulin trucks with infantry were destroyed, with some of the vehicles burnt out.

It looks like the entire column was carrying infantry. They were armed, a platoon per vehicle, most likely. Three to four companies — an entire battalion — was destroyed….This is one of the bloodiest and most massive strikes (most likely HIMARS) in the entire war.

UPDATE 0856 GMT:

Ukraine air defenses intercepted all 27 Iran-made attack drones launched by Russia overnight.

The UAVs were downed over the Kyiv, Poltava, Sumy, Mykolaiv, Kherson, Donetsk, and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

UPDATE 0850 GMT:

Vladimir Putin has urged Kursk Governor
Alexei Smirnov to show fortitude in the face of Ukraine’s cross-border incursion.

In a video call on Thursday, Putin said:

Life poses extraordinary, challenging tasks of helping people. While you certainly have the necessary professional knowledge, skills, and experience, they alone are not enough. In today’s circumstances, you need a certain level of courage and composure.

UPDATE 0759 GMT:

Officials in Russia’s Kursk region say it faced a “massive” distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on Thursday amid Ukraine’s cross-border incursion.

The hackers targeted critical infrastructure services and government and business websites, leading to temporary outages.

The Russian Digital Ministry said there were more than 100,000 junk requests per second at the peak of the DDoS attack. The internet protocol (IP) addresses involved in the incident were mainly registered in Germany and the UK.

UPDATE 0740 GMT:

A young man and his 6-year-old brother were killed on Thursday when a Russian guided bomb hit a schoolyard in the Sumy region in northern Ukraine.

The head of the regional military administration, Volodymyr Artiukh, said an unprecedented 56 guided bombs were dropped by Russia in 24 hours.

Sumy is across the border from Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces have carried out an incursion since Tuesday.

At least four people were killed and 28 wounded in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine by Russian shelling.

At least two were slain and 17 injured in an attack on a supermarket in Kostiantynivka, west of Bakhmut.

Two were killed and 11 injured in Selydove, farther to the southwest.

In the Dnipropetrovsk region in south-central Ukraine, a 50-year-old man was killed during a Russian artillery attack on a hospital in the Nikopol district.

UPDATE 0650 GMT:

Amid Ukraine’s cross-border raid, residents of the Kursk region appeal to Russian officials for help:

We lost our land, lost our homes. We fled under fire, ran among the ruins.

UPDATE 0647 GMT:

A Ukrainian drone attack has set a military airfield on fire and damaged an energy facility in the Lipetsk region in western Russia.

Lipetsk Governor Igor Artamanov said six people were injured.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: In his first allusion to Ukraine’s four-day raid into the Kursk region in southwest Russia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said that the Kremlin needs to recognize the consequences of its 29-month invasion.

Ukrainian forces crossed the border on Tuesday morning. They have advanced up to 15 km (9.3 miles) inside Kursk, overrun a checkpoint, captured a gas distribution station, and may be in up to 11 settlements.

Zelenskiy said at the launching of a military app on Thursday, “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.”

The Russian Defense Ministry insisted that “the enemy has been prevented from advancing”. But 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.

Map: Institute for the Study of War

Russian military observers reported fighting on the highway east of Korenevo, 13 miles north of the border, while the western part of the village Sudzha — about six miles into Russia — appears to be under Ukrainian control.

Video showed Ukraine’s capture of dozens of Russian troops.

Zelenskiy’s aide Mykhailo Podolyak said on national TV:

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.