Ukraine to receive ‘a fitting response’ for its invasion of Russian territory. Vladimir Putin lets his anger shine through at a new meeting of armed forces and security officials on the seventh day of the Battle of Kursk. The primary goal in the conflict is now to “expel” Kiev’s forces from Russian territory, the president adds. But the situation remains “complicated,” warns the governor, Alexei Smirnov, admitting that the enemy has taken control of 28 localities. While the commander of the Ukrainian armed forces, Oleksandr Syrsky, claims that the conquered territory amounts to a thousand square kilometers.
“We continue to conduct offensive operations in the Kursk region,” Syrsky announced in a video posted on the social media channels of President Volodymyr Zelensky, who for the first time publicly acknowledged the ongoing offensive. And according to Smirnov, 121,000 civilians have already been evacuated from the combat areas. On the other side of the border, in the Ukrainian region of Sumy, about 20,000 people have been displaced. But Russia has decided to evacuate the population of one district in another border region, Belgorod, where there is “enemy activity,” said Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.
The Russian Telegram channel Rybar, considered close to the armed forces, reported an attempt to infiltrate Belgorod by several dozen saboteurs, who were repelled at the Kolotilovka crossing. But the Ukrainians are probably preparing for “another, more serious attack.” Putin added that Russia also fears Ukrainian actions in another border region, Bryansk.
Moscow’s Defense Ministry said it was continuing to move troops and equipment toward Kursk, and spoke of heavy losses among Ukrainians – 260 servicemen – in the past 24 hours. But the picture painted by Governor Smirnov was decidedly worrying. Kiev’s forces had advanced to a depth of 12 kilometers on a 40-wide front, he said.
And the main problem, he added, is that “there is no clear front line, it is not clear where the Ukrainian units are”, which appear to move in small groups with tactical maneuvers that displace the Russian ones.
Smirnov also accused the Ukrainians of using chemical weapons in an artillery bombardment of the Belovo district, where “police officers and the head of a rural community were poisoned.” According to the governor, 12 civilians have been killed and 121 injured in the Ukrainian bombardment so far, including 10 children.
Putin explained the offensive on Russian soil as Kiev’s aim to improve its position for future negotiations. All this “with the help of the West”. The US and its allies, he declared, “are waging war on Russia through Ukrainian hands”. The president also sees the war initiative as an attempt to divert Russian troops from the Donbass theater, where they have been on the offensive for months, and to “sow discord” and “destroy the cohesion” of Russian society. Objectives more or less confirmed in Kiev by a high-ranking Ukrainian official who spoke to the AFP agency on condition of anonymity. Objectives that will not be achieved, the Russian president assured: Moscow’s forces “are advancing along the entire front line” on Ukrainian territory, he stated.
Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry said it had “accelerated the pace” of the offensive in the Donetsk region, with three villages being captured in the last week. As for negotiations, they are out of the question in the current situation. “What can we talk about with people who indiscriminately target civilians and try to threaten nuclear facilities?” Putin said, referring to the latest incident involving the Zaporizhzhia power plant.
Zelensky accused “Russian occupiers” of setting a fire on Sunday at the plant’s cooling towers, in territory controlled by Moscow’s troops. But Russia accused the Ukrainians of bombing the site, and Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused Kiev of “nuclear terrorism.” According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and local Russian authorities, there was no risk of an explosion, because the plant’s six reactors were being cold-shut down.
US, Putin should leave Ukraine if he doesn’t want Kiev troops in Kursk
If the Ukrainian armed incursion into Russia’s Kursk region doesn’t please Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin “can just walk away from Ukraine,” U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said at a press conference. “This is Putin’s war against Ukraine. And if he doesn’t like it, if it makes him a little uncomfortable, then there’s a simple solution: he can just walk away from Ukraine and be done with it,” Kirby said when asked about Kiev’s actions in the Kursk region.
Ft, “Russia Prepared Navy for Nuclear Strikes in Europe”
Russia has been training its navy to strike sites in the heart of Europe with nuclear-tipped missiles, in a potential conflict with NATO, the Financial Times has revealed, citing secret documents it has seen. “A presentation for officers, before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, detailed maps of targets such as the west coast of France and Barrow-in-Furness in the UK,” the newspaper reports, explaining that the maps “produced for display rather than operational use, show 32 NATO targets in Europe for Russian naval fleets.”