In its largest attack on Russian territory since the start of the war, Ukraine bombarded two districts of Russia with drones on Tuesday. At the same time, its ground forces attempted to breach defensive positions in an attempt to seize even more land.
A week ago, Ukrainian soldiers unexpectedly crossed the Russian border, approximately 530 km (330 miles) southwest of Moscow. According to President Vladimir Putin, the attack was carried out to strengthen Kyiv’s negotiating position ahead of potential negotiations and delay the advance of Russian forces along the remainder of the front.
Twelve drones were destroyed over the Kursk region, one over Belgorod, and one over Voronezh, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense’s air defence forces. Russian officials issued missile attack alerts from Belgorod and Kursk.
The size of Russian territory under Ukrainian control has been estimated by both Russia and Ukraine to be significantly different; although Kyiv claims 1,000 square kilometres (386 square miles), Russian officials said that it is less than half that.
As Ukrainian forces attempt to extend their grip near Lgov, Bolshoy Soldatskoye, and Korenevo, Russian war bloggers reported fierce fights across the Kursk front. However, they claimed that Russia was bringing in both soldiers and heavy weaponry and that they had repelled parts of the Ukrainian attacks.
Uncertainty surrounded the future of the town of Sudzha, which serves as a conduit for Russian gas supplies from Western Siberia to Slovakia and other EU nations via Ukraine. Gazprom declared on Monday that it continued to pump.
Some Russian war bloggers and Ukrainian Telegram channels said the town was in the control of Ukraine, though Reuters was unable to independently verify the battlefield accounts and Russia has yet to give details on the situation in Sudzha.
In 2023, Sudzha supplied 14.65 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas, or over half of Russia’s natural gas exports to Europe and 5% of the EU’s consumption.
The invasion by Ukraine has demonstrated the potency of small, highly mobile units against the numerically superior Russian army; though by committing forces to Kursk, Ukraine may jeopardise other fronts.
Despite having to deploy troops to block the Ukrainian advance, Russia claimed on Monday that it was making progress in other areas of the front.
In his evening speech, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy informed the Ukrainian people that Russia had utilised the Kursk region as a launchpad for several strikes on Ukraine, making the operation an issue of Ukrainian security.
“Russia must be forced to make peace if Putin wants to fight so badly,” Zelenskiy said.
Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and now controls 18% of Ukrainian territory. Until the surprise attack on Russia, Ukraine had been losing territory to Russian forces despite hundreds of billions of dollars in US and European support aimed at stopping and even reversing the Russian advance.
In Kursk, 121,000 people had already left or have been evacuated and another 59,000 were in the process of being evacuated, local officials said. In Russia’s Belgorod region, which borders Kursk, 11,000 civilians were also evacuated, the region’s governor said.
Ukraine’s air force said on Tuesday that Russia launched 38 attack drones and two ballistic missiles on Ukraine overnight. The whole country was briefly under air raid alerts early on Tuesday, but these have since been called off.
