Residents have been evacuated from parts of Russia’s western Kursk region amid an ongoing Ukrainian cross-border assault that entered its third day on Aug. 8.
According to Belostotsky, about 3,000 residents were evacuated from areas near the border; half of them are now in temporary shelters.
In the early hours of Aug. 6, hundreds of Ukrainian troops—backed by tanks and armored vehicles—entered Russia’s western Kursk region, according to Russia’s defense ministry.
Roughly 18,500 square miles in size, the region shares a roughly 150-mile border with northeastern Ukraine.
On Aug. 7, Russia’s defense ministry said its forces had stopped a Ukrainian bid to seize the border town of Sudzha, a key transit hub for Russian natural gas.
In a statement, the ministry said that combined Russian forces were “destroying Ukrainian armed formations in the Sudzha and Korenevo districts ... directly adjacent to the Russia–Ukraine border.”
“Active operations” involving airstrikes, missile attacks, and artillery fire “have prevented the enemy’s advance,” the ministry said.
Nevertheless, Russia’s National Guard has since stepped up security at Kursk’s nuclear power plant, which sits about 35 miles northeast of Sudzha.
On the evening of Aug. 7, Alexey Smirnov, Kursk’s acting governor, declared a region-wide state of emergency in the face of continued “infiltration” by “enemy forces.”
The following day, Russia’s defense ministry claimed that Ukraine had lost 660 troops, along with 82 armored vehicles, since the raid first began.
However, Ukrainian forces were still in the region, according to the ministry.
“The operation to destroy Ukrainian armed formations continues,” it said in a statement.
The Epoch Times could not independently verify the ministry’s assertions.
Kyiv, for its part, has largely refrained from commenting on the cross-border assault.
But on Aug. 8, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy—in an oblique reference to the ongoing raid—praised the Ukrainian military’s ability “to surprise.”
“This is demonstrated by the battlefield, where our soldiers not only withstood the overwhelming force of the occupiers but are also destroying it in the way necessary to protect Ukraine.”
It isn’t the first time that Kyiv has invaded Russian territory.
In 2023, Russian forces repelled several large-scale assaults—into both Kursk and neighboring Belgorod—by what Moscow described as “Ukrainian saboteurs.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has described the latest cross-border assault as “another large-scale provocation” by Kyiv.
Washington Seeks Clarification
Asked about the cross-border raid, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Washington was “in communication with the Ukrainians about this particular operation.”When asked about the Ukrainian military’s reported use of U.S.-supplied weapons in Kursk, Miller said: “Nothing about our policy has changed.
“With the actions that [the Ukrainians] are taking today, they’re not in violation of our policy.”
In June, the Pentagon permitted Kyiv to use U.S.-supplied weapons in response to limited cross-border attacks from inside Russia.
Kyiv, however, remains prohibited from using U.S.-supplied long-range munitions to strike targets deep inside Russian territory.
“Nothing with respect to the policy that we announced several months ago ... allowing equipment that we provide to be used in strikes across the border ... nothing about that policy has changed,” Miller said on Aug. 7.
“We are going to continue to stay focused on making sure they have what they need to defend themselves against Russia’s aggression,” she said.
When asked if the United States had been told in advance about Kyiv’s intention to stage a cross-border assault, Jean-Pierre replied with one word: “No.”
