Ukraine attacked two Russian regions with drones on Tuesday (13) as its ground forces tried to break through defensive lines in a bid to seize even more territory, in its biggest attack on Russian territory since the start of the war.
Ukrainian troops crossed the Russian border about 530 km (330 miles) southwest of Moscow a week ago in a surprise attack that President Vladimir Putin said was aimed at improving Kiev’s position ahead of possible ceasefire talks and slowing the advance of Russian forces along the front.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defense units destroyed 12 drones over the Kursk region, one over the Belgorod region and one over Voronezh. Russian authorities in Kursk and Belgorod issued warnings about missile attacks.
Russia and Ukraine have given widely differing estimates of the area of Russian territory under Ukrainian control, with Kiev claiming 1,000 square kilometers but Russian authorities saying the area was less than half that.
Russian war bloggers reported intense battles on the Kursk front as Ukrainian forces tried to expand their control near Lgov, Bolshoy Soldatskoye and Korenevo – although they claimed Russia was bringing in soldiers and heavy weapons and repelling some of the Ukrainian attacks.
The fate of the city of Sudzha, through which Russia pumps gas from Western Siberia, across Ukraine and on to Slovakia and other European Union countries, was unclear. Gazprom said on Monday (12) that the pipeline was still operating.
Some Russian war bloggers and Ukrainian Telegram channels said the city was under Ukrainian control, although Reuters was unable to independently verify the battlefield reports and Russia has yet to give details about the situation in Sudzha.
Around 14.65 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas was supplied through Sudzha in 2023 – around half of Russia’s natural gas exports to Europe, or around 5% of EU consumption.
The Ukrainian attack highlighted how effective small, highly mobile units can be against the numerically superior Russian army, although by devoting forces to Kursk, Ukraine could weaken other parts of the front.
Russia said on Monday it was gaining on other parts of the front, although Moscow had to mobilize reserves to halt the Ukrainian advance.
President Volodymyr Zelensky told Ukrainians in his evening address that the operation was a matter of Ukrainian security and that the Kursk region had been used by Russia to launch many attacks against Ukraine.
“Russia must be forced to make peace if Putin wants to fight so badly,” Zelensky said.
Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and now controls 18% of Ukraine’s territory. Until the surprise attack on Russia, Ukraine had been losing territory to Russian forces, despite billions of dollars in US and European support aimed at halting and even reversing the Russian advance.
In Kursk, 121,000 people had already left or been evacuated and another 59,000 were in the process of being displaced, local authorities said. In Russia’s Belgorod region, which borders Kursk, 11,000 civilians had also been evacuated, the region’s governor said.
Ukraine’s air force said on Tuesday that Russia launched 38 attack drones and two ballistic missiles into Ukraine overnight. The entire country was briefly under air strike warnings on Tuesday morning, but these have since been lifted.
Source: CNN Brasil
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