Ukraine, on the other hand, declared that the offensive would only end when Russia agreed to a “just peace.” Russian war bloggers reported on Tuesday that there was intense fighting along the front in the region. According to Ukrainian sources, Russia deployed soldiers and heavy weapons and was able to repel attacks.
“The sooner Russia agrees to restore a just peace, especially on the basis of the peace formula that leads to this peace, the sooner the attacks by the Ukrainian defense forces on Russian territory will stop,” said Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhij Tykhyj at a media briefing in Kyiv on Tuesday. The aim of the attack is not to seize foreign territories, but to protect the lives of the Ukrainian population and to protect its own territory from Russian attacks. Ukraine’s actions are absolutely legitimate, as the armed forces do not violate international humanitarian law.
“Uncontrolled enemy advance was stopped”
The Russian Defense Ministry released footage of Sukhoi Su-34 bombers allegedly attacking Ukrainian troops in the Russian border area and of infantry storming Ukrainian positions. “The enemy’s uncontrolled advance has already been stopped,” said Major General Apti Alaudinov, commander of the Chechen special forces unit Akhmat. “The enemy already knows that its planned blitzkrieg did not work.”
It was unclear which side controls the Russian city of Sudzha, through which Russia supplies gas from Western Siberia through Ukraine to Slovakia and other EU countries. Gazprom said on Tuesday that gas was continuing to be pumped through Sudzha to Ukraine. Pipeline operator Gas Connect Austria saw no disruptions in natural gas supplies to Austria.
Improve negotiating position
The governor of Kursk, Alexei Smirnov, said on Monday that Ukraine controlled 28 settlements in the region. The incursion was about twelve kilometers deep and 40 kilometers wide. According to Ukrainian sources, 1,000 square kilometers of Russian territory were taken, more than double the figures given by Smirnov. A week ago, Ukrainian soldiers unexpectedly broke through the Russian border.
President Vladimir Putin had said the attack was aimed at improving Kiev’s negotiating position ahead of possible talks and slowing the advance of Russian forces on the front lines in Ukrainian territory. But Putin rejected negotiations on Monday. “What kind of negotiations can we even talk about with people who indiscriminately attack civilians and civilian infrastructure or try to endanger nuclear power plants?” At his Novo-Ogaryovo residence near Moscow, Putin told senior officials that Russia would expel the Ukrainian troops and promised an “appropriate response.”
200,000 people evacuated
The Russian government evacuated at least 200,000 people from the region, sent reserves and imposed a security lockdown. According to the authorities there, 11,000 civilians have also been evacuated in the neighboring region of Belgorod. The local authorities are also preparing to evacuate another district, as the head of the Bolshoye Soldatskoye district (Bolshesoldatski rajon), Vladimir Zaitsev, announced on Telegram. Unlike the districts of the Kursk region that have been evacuated so far, this district is not in the immediate vicinity of the Ukrainian-Russian border, but further inland.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly video address that the operation in Russia was a matter of Ukrainian security. The Kursk region had been used by Russia to launch many attacks against Ukraine. During the night, it attacked with drones and ground troops tried to break through Russian defense lines to bring more territory under their control.
“That is why our operations are purely a security issue for Ukraine, to free the border from the Russian military,” said Zelensky in his nightly video address. Kursk will become a symbol of the beginning and end of Russian President Putin, said Zelensky, referring to the disaster that occurred when the most modern Russian nuclear submarine, the Kursk, sank in August 2000 with 118 crew members on board. “24 years ago there was the Kursk disaster, which was the symbolic beginning of his rule; now we are seeing the end of it – and it is Kursk again.”
Attacks on Donbass continue
Far away from the war in the western Russian region of Kursk, attacks continued around the Donbass in eastern Ukraine. According to Russian sources, two people were killed in Ukrainian shelling in the city of Lysychansk. This was reported by the Russian state news agency Tass, citing the authorities in the city, which is under Russian control. Previously, representatives of the administration installed by Russia had spoken of more than 30 injured.
According to authorities, the eastern Ukrainian city of Sumy was the target of a Russian missile attack on Tuesday night. Infrastructure objects were hit, the military administration of the Sumy region announced on Telegram. The Ukrainian side does not provide any information about possible hits on military targets. Sumy is used to supply Ukrainian troops, which have been operating in the neighboring Russian region of Kursk for more than a week. The Ukrainian General Staff has ordered a restriction on the freedom of movement of residents of parts of Sumy within a radius of 20 kilometers. The reason given was that Russian sabotage and reconnaissance could be expected in the area.
According to the Ukrainian Air Force, the Russian army deployed two Iskander ballistic missiles and 38 combat drones against Ukraine during the night. Thirty drones were intercepted, it was reported. An air raid warning was in effect in large parts of Ukraine during the night.
