Ukraine has advanced in several spots in Russia’s Kursk region, a new map indicates, as Moscow wrestles with clamping down on Kyiv’s incursion nearly two weeks after it was launched.
Ukrainian forces seized the villages of Apanaskovka and Byakhovo, a Russian source indicated on Saturday, according to the U.S-based think tank, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). The settlements sit south of Korenovo, a Russian border town around which heavy clashes have been taking place for more than a week and a half.
Geolocated footage also shows Kyiv’s troops to have advanced into the southwest of the settlement of Russkoye Porechnoye, the think tank noted in its latest map of Ukraine’s cross-border offensive.
Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry for comment via email.
Thousands of Ukrainian troops crossed over into Kursk earlier this month, launching the most significant advance into Russian territory since the start of full-scale war nearly two and a half years ago.
NEW: It is too early to assess the outcomes and operational significance of the Ukrainian incursion into Russia and the ongoing Russian offensive effort in eastern Ukraine. 🧵(1/14)
1/ The Ukrainian operation in Kursk Oblast has already generated theater-wide operational and… pic.twitter.com/DCg9vAGswl
— Institute for the Study of War (@TheStudyofWar) August 18, 2024
Moscow struggled to respond as Kyiv’s fighters quickly advanced, with the areas surrounding the towns of Sudzha and Korenevo among the first targets. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said earlier this week that Kyiv had captured Sudzha, adding that Ukraine was gaining territory in the region.
“The operation is unfolding exactly as we expected,” Zelensky then said in his evening address on Saturday. “Now we are reinforcing our positions. The foothold of our presence is getting stronger.”
Russia’s senior officials have repeatedly said its troops, under a “counterterrorism operation” led by the federal security service, the FSB, halted Ukrainian gains. This narrative has been contradicted by a number of Russia’s influential military bloggers, Ukrainian sources and Western analysis, as Moscow transferred reinforcements to the border.
A prominent Russian military blogger said on Sunday that Moscow had “transferred reserves there and brought in some of the most experienced units from other sections of the front.” On Saturday, the account described “fierce fighting” in Kursk, with Ukraine bringing in “new reserves.”
AP
The Belgorod region bordering Kursk also declared a federal state of emergency on Thursday, and Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry has recently reported thousands of people leaving Kursk each day.
The ISW assessed on Saturday that Kyiv’s forces had reached up to 28 kilometers (17.4 miles) into Kursk, spanning a width of around 56 kilometers. However, the area Ukraine is consolidating is likely smaller than this, the think tank said.
Ukraine has said it does not wish to keep hold of the territory it controls in Kursk, but hopes to cut off Russian logistics propping up the war effort elsewhere along the front line and shield its territory from highly destructive aerial attacks.
Kyiv’s air force said on Sunday it had destroyed a second bridge in Kursk, tightening Ukraine’s grip on Russian logistics.
A Russian Telegram channel chalked up the attack on the bridge in the Kursk village of Zvannoye to U.S.-supplied HIMARS, or High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems. There “is only one bridge left in the district,” the account wrote on Sunday.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Friday that Ukraine “completely destroyed” another bridge over the Seym River near the Kursk border village of Glushkovo with “Western-made weapons, probably American HIMARS.”
Russian regional authorities gave the order to evacuate the Glushkovo district, southwest of Korenovo, earlier this week. A Russian military blogger said on Saturday that “the logistical situation continues to deteriorate” around Glushkovo, with Ukraine “striking at the remaining bridges across the Seym River, but the Russian army is already building pontoon crossings.”
The offensive into Kursk came after months of slow but steady gains for Russia in eastern Ukraine, after it seized the strategic Donetsk city of Avdiivka and continued pushing westward toward Pokrovsk. The city is a key link in the chain of Ukraine’s eastern defenses, and a vital logistics hub.
The incursion into Kursk appears to have been a boon for Ukrainian morale, staring down Russia’s persistent gains. Zelensky said on Saturday that Russian forces attacked Ukrainian positions near Pokrovsk and Toretsk, another heavily targeted Donetsk city, “dozens” of times in the previous 24 hours.
The surge toward Pokrovsk, while battling Ukraine’s incursion into Kursk, will put “greater strain” on Russia and could stretch Moscow’s ability to keep up the pressure on Ukraine along the hundreds of miles of front lines, the ISW said.
