Ukrainian military says troops control about 1,000 square kilometers of Russian territory; Putin’s veneer of invincibility punctured
Tens of thousands of Russians have been forced to flee their homes as Ukraine launched a surprise offensive over the weekend and on Monday into the Russian border region of Kursk on capturing over two dozen towns and villages in the most significant cross-border attack on Russian soil since World War II.
Ukraine’s military chief Oleksandr Syrsky told President Volodymyr Zelensky in a video posted on August 12, 2024 that his troops now control about 1,000 square kilometres of Russian territory and are continuing “offensive operations”.
The incursion – the first time foreign troops entered Russian territory since World War II – is a major embarrassment for the Kremlin. it’s becoming increasingly clear that Moscow does not have the situation under control. as Russian troops are yet to stop the Ukrainian advance.
The scale of the crisis became clear on Monday, August 12 when Putin held a tense meeting with top security and government officials and the heads of the border regions, vowing to “kick the enemy out.”
A video of the meeting published by the Kremlin shows Putin scolding his subordinates, at one point shutting down the Kursk region’s acting governor Alexei Smirnov as he attempts to outline the scale of the invasion.
Smirnov was telling Putin that the Ukrainians were some 11 kilometers deep into Russian territory when Putin cut him off saying he can get that information from the military and ordered him to focus on social and economic issues instead.
The first reports of Ukrainian troops crossing into Russia’s Kurs region, just north of the Ukrainian border, started to emerge late last Tuesday. But it wasn’t until several days later that Kyiv officially acknowledged its military was operating inside Russia.
“Bold, brilliant, beautiful,” was what veteran US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham called Ukraine’s cross-border operation during a visit to Kyiv Monday. Meanwhile, US Democrat Senator Richard Blumenthal called it “historic” and a “seismic breakthrough.”
The incursion marked a notable change of tactics from Kyiv. The Ukrainian military has in the past regularly attacked targets inside Russia with drones and missiles, and there have been limited cross-border attacks by Ukraine-aligned Russian saboteurs, but until last week it had not launched any official ground incursions across the border.
By Monday, Kyiv claimed to have control over some 1,000 square kilometers (386 square miles) of Russian territory. In terms of its size, it’s similar to the amount of Ukrainian land Russia managed to seize so far this year, estimated by the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) at 1,175 square kilometers (453 square miles).
Still, the area is dwarfed by the more than 100,000 square kilometers, or 18% of Ukraine’s total territory, taken by Russia since the conflict started in 2014.
Kyiv is likely trying to achieve several goals: reclaim the initiative and boost the morale of its soldiers while diverting Russia’s attention and embarrassing Putin.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said over the weekend that the incursion was a way to put “pressure on the aggressor.”
On Monday, he added that it was “only fair” and beneficial to destroy the Russian positions that are used to launch strikes against Ukraine, saying thousands have been launched from the Kursk region since the beginning of June.
“Russia must be forced into peace if Putin wants to continue waging war so badly,” he said.
Ukraine has been under increased pressure along the 600-mile front line as Moscow in recent months, even as the long-awaited US military aid started to arrive to the front.
Moscow’s slow, grinding offensive along the entire frontline has been forcing Ukraine to commit to defensive operations rather than gear up for a counteroffensive.
While Russia’s advances have been mostly incremental, it has recently managed to inch towards several strategically important towns and roads in eastern Ukraine.
