Putin’s troops in Russia’s Kursk forced back miles by Ukraine’s attack – war latest

Kyiv’s audacious cross-border assault into Russia‘s Kursk region has certainly ruffled feathers in Moscow. Vladimir Putindenounced it as a “large-scale provocation” while his officials have lined up to tell him the situation is under control – despite fighting continuing into a third day on Thursday and thousands of people having to evacuate the area.

Ukraine has an issue with the number of soldiers it can put on the battlefield and has been trying to up recruitment, so some may ask why it would commit resources to an incursion into Russia, especially when Moscow’s forces are putting Kyiv’s troops under pressure on other points of the 600-mile frontline, including around the key eastern town of Pokrovsk, several hundred miles away in the region of Donetsk.

However, while the operation into Kursk is unlikely to create a long-term strategic opportunity for Kyiv, given that troops will be unable to hold any gained land for long, there are plenty of more symbolic reasons for bursting through the border. The two major reasons are morale and making both Moscow and Western allies think.

Some Russian bloggers said Ukraine‘s forces were pushing towards the Kursk nuclear power station, which lies about 60 km (37 miles) northeast of Sudzha.

Yuri Podolyaka, a popular Ukrainian-born, pro-Russian military blogger, said that there were intense battles about 30 km from the Soviet-era nuclear plant, which supplies a large swathe of southern Russia with power.

Russian prosecutors on Thursday demanded a 15-year sentence for Ksenia Karelina, a Russian-American woman accused of treason for making a donation to a charity supporting Ukraine.

Karelina, who was not included in a major prisoner swap between Russia and the West last week, is on trial in the city of Yekaterinburg, where prosecutors and defence lawyers were summing up their cases.

The verdict, which had been expected on Thursday, is now due on Aug. 15, a Reuters reporter at the court said.

Karelina was born in Russia but emigrated to the United States in 2012 and became a U.S. citizen in 2021.

The Los Angeles spa employee was arrested by the FSB security service after flying to Russia to visit her family in Yekaterinburg at the start of the year.

Investigators brought the treason charge after discovering on her mobile phone that she had donated $51.80 to Razom, a charity that provides aid to Ukraine, when Russia invaded its neighbour in February 2022. The FSB alleged that the ultimate beneficiary was the Ukrainian army.

Razom said at the time of her arrest that it was “appalled”. The charity’s website says it supports a range of humanitarian projects including the supply of first aid kits, wood stoves, generators, radios and vehicles to frontline Ukrainian medics.

It also helps Ukrainian children and vulnerable communities affected by the war, including by providing food, shelter, psychological support and clean water.

Ukraine could replace soldiers with robot dogs on its front lines for risky missions like spying on Russian trenches or detecting mines.

Not just used for treacherous missions, the hounds can also carry just over a stone of ammunition or medicines to hot spots on the battlefield.

At a demonstration in an undisclosed part of Ukraine, the metallic dog known as model “BAD One” stood up, crouched, ran and jumped according to commands transmitted by its operator, Agence France Press has reported.

“We have surveillance soldiers who get sent on reconnaissance missions (who) are most of the time very highly trained people, very experienced people (and) always exposed to risks,” said the operator who went by the name Yuri as he demonstrated to AFP journalists.

A top Russian general has said in a rare admission that the Kremlin’s troops are running out of “forces” and “resources.”

Top Russian General Apti Alaudinov, commander of the Akhmat special forces unit fighting in Russia, also confirmed there had been deaths in Ukraine’s Kursk incursion.

Mr Alaudinov said the incursion had been made possible because Moscow “had neither forces, nor means, nor resources” to stop them.

He said on the Telegram messaging app: “There is no irreversible process, nothing supernatural happened… Yes, the guys died, that’s true. Several populated areas, the enemy entered there,” he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced that residents of Kursk who have been forced to evacuate their homes due to the incursion will be given a one-time payment of 10,000 rubles (£90), CNN reported.

Putin reportedly shared the news during a video conference with Alexey Smirnov, the acting governor of Kursk Oblast.

Ukraine is “not violating policy” by using US-supplied weapons in Kursk despite the operation being on Russian territory, the US state department has said.

Matthew Miller, the state department spokesperson, confirmed at a briefing that the US had not received warnings about possible operations on Russian territory and emphasised that Ukraine is making these decisions alone.

But he also said the US policy about weapons restrictions and using American weapons to strike inside Russian territory remains unchanged.

He said in response to a question from a reporter: “I will answer this way. Nothing in our policy has changed, and with the actions they [Ukrainians] are taking today, they’re not violating our policy.”

In May, President Joe Biden gave Ukraine the green light to use American weaponry to strike inside Russia for the limited purpose of defending Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.

Mr Miller’s remarks may seem surprising as Mr Biden’s edict in May did not change policy directing Ukraine not to use American-provided long-range missiles and other munitions to strike offensively inside Russia.

Two people have been killed by Russian shelling today in the town of Kostiantynivka in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk.

The strike hit a residential district of the town in the morning, Vadym Filashkin, the head of the Donetsk regional military administration, reported on his Telegram account.

At least four people were killed in Russian shelling in the same region on Wednesday.

Ukrainian-controlled areas of the Donetsk region frequently face Russian shelling and airstrikes. A significant part of the region is under Russian control, with Moscow claiming it, along with four other Ukrainian regions, as its territory.

Donetsk continues to be a major flashpoint, with Russian forces focusing on targets near the strategically important eastern logistics hub of Pokrovsk.