Russia says it stopped enemy incursion attempt

kyiv, Ukraine (AP) — Russia said yesterday its forces have stopped a Ukrainian attempt to expand its surprise incursion into the Kursk region, while a Ukrainian official said kyiv has no intention of occupying Russian territory.

Russian army units, fresh reserves, army aircraft, drone teams and artillery forces stopped the attempt of Ukrainian mobile armored units to advance further into Russian territory near the settlements of Obshchy Kolodez, Snagost, Kauchuk and Alexeyevsky, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi said the incursion was only aimed at protecting Ukrainian territory from long-range attacks launched by Russia from Kursk.

“Ukraine is not interested in taking territory in the Kursk region, but we want to protect the lives of our people,” Tykhyi was quoted as saying by local media.

He said Russia had launched more than 2,000 attacks from the Kursk region in recent months, using anti-aircraft missiles, artillery, mortars, drones, 255 glider bombs and more than 100 missiles.

He added that “the purpose of this operation is to save the lives of our children, to protect the territory of Ukraine from Russian attacks.”

Ukrainian army commander Oleksandr Syrskyi said in a video posted on President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Telegram channel yesterday that Ukraine now controls 74 settlements in the Kursk region.

Ukrainian troops have continued their advance, taking control of more than 40 square kilometers (15 square miles) of territory in the past 24 hours, Syrskyi said. “Battles are ongoing along the entire front. The situation, despite the high intensity of fighting, is under control,” he added.

Ukraine’s Western allies have insisted that the country has the right to defend itself, including by means of cross-border attacks. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said yesterday that he supported the Ukrainian operation, although he said that kyiv had not consulted him beforehand.

Russia’s military actions in Ukraine bear “the hallmarks of genocide, of inhuman crimes, and Ukraine has every right to wage war to paralyze Russia in its aggressive intentions in the most effective way possible,” Tusk said.

Kremlin forces are stepping up their attacks in eastern Ukraine. Ukraine’s General Command said that in the previous 24 hours, Russian troops had launched 52 assaults in the area of ​​Pokrovsk, a town in Ukraine’s Donetsk region that is close to the front. That’s about double the number of daily attacks recorded there a week ago.

The Ukrainian army, outnumbered by the Russian army, has been struggling to contain the larger and better-equipped Russian forces in the Donetsk region.

At a glance

Ukrainian incursion

The Ukrainian military says its incursion into Russian soil, which began on August 6, already covers 1,000 square kilometers of territory. The ambitious Ukrainian operation, the largest attack on Russia since World War II, has shaken the Kremlin and prompted Russian President Vladimir Putin to call a meeting with his defense officials.

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