The Ukrainian attack on Kursk… What do we know about it so far?

The Ukrainian army launched a surprise attack against Russia last Tuesday, seizing more than 20 villages in the largest cross-border campaign against Russian territory since World War II.

The attack comes about two and a half years after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and against the backdrop of neither side achieving a real breakthrough on the front lines.

The attack began shortly after sunrise on August 6 at around 5:30 local time (2:30 GMT), according to Russian Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov.

About 1,000 troops have crossed into Russia’s Kursk region near the town of Sudzha, backed by at least 11 tanks and more than 20 armored vehicles, according to Russian estimates.

A Ukrainian official says that “thousands” of soldiers were taking part in the attack.

“They didn’t protect the border! They just planted anti-personnel mines around the trees on the side of the road, and some of the mines they managed to plant on the highway,” a Ukrainian soldier who identified himself as “Rozhik” told AFP, referring to the Russians.

About an hour after the attack began, Kursk region governor Alexei Smirnov posted on Telegram footage of destruction from the border town of Sudzha.

He said that the town was subjected to artillery shelling that left a number of people wounded, and he published scenes of houses reduced to rubble.

The Russian Defense Ministry acknowledged that Ukraine had breached the border in the area in a statement published more than 11 hours after the attack began.

The Russian Defense Ministry said that Russian forces, including border guard units, “are repelling the attacks and their fire is causing damage to the enemy”.

At least 12 civilians were killed and 121 others wounded in the fighting, according to the governor of the Kursk region.

Russian state media broadcast footage from the border area, as the Kremlin sought to downplay the war’s impact on Russian civilians.

But since the offensive began as of Monday, 121,000 people have left or been evacuated, Smirnov said.

The governor of the neighboring Belgorod region also announced evacuations from one border area.

Aid is being sent to the region and additional trains have been made available to Moscow for those fleeing the fighting.

A local Russian television station broadcast footage from central Sudzha showing destroyed buildings, rubble in the streets and craters in the ground from artillery shelling.

Several Russian media outlets published a video that they said showed some of the residents who fled the town appealing to Russian President Vladimir Putin for help, with many saying that members of their families were unable to leave.

In a video published by Russian media on August 7, the town’s priest, Yevgeny Shestopalov, says that Sudzha is burning and that a number of residents who were unable to leave are taking shelter in his church.

The small town of about five thousand people has a gas pumping station, the last one still supplying gas to Europe, especially Slovakia and Hungary via Ukraine.

It’s the largest town that Ukraine is trying to control in its offensive.

In 2023, 14.65 billion cubic meters of gas were pumped through Sudzha, just under half of Russia’s gas exports to Europe.

While Europe has largely cut off Russian gas supplies since the invasion began, Moscow has continued gas supplies via Sudzha under a five-year deal it signed with Kyiv at the end of 2019.

Ukraine says it won’t extend the deal, which expires in 2024.

However, there are fears that Russian state energy giant Gazprom will use the battles as an excuse to stop pumping gas through Sudzha before the agreement expires.

Video footage taken on August 9 showed Ukrainian soldiers carrying rifles and flags in front of a Gazprom facility near the town.

As of Monday, Ukraine had taken control of at least 800 square kilometers of Russian territory in the Kursk region, based on data from the Institute for the Study of War.

On Monday, the Ukrainian army commander said that Kiev had taken control of about a thousand square kilometers and was continuing its offensive operations.

Russia acknowledged that Ukrainian units had entered deep into the country’s territory, and said on Sunday that they were now 30 km from the border.

Smirnov said on Monday that at least 28 villages had come under Ukrainian control.

On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that Ukrainian forces had taken control of 74 towns on Russian territory.

“Despite difficult and intense fighting, our forces continue to advance in the Kursk region,” Zelensky wrote on Telegram. “Ukraine controls 74 towns”.

Meanwhile, Kyiv controls at least the western sector of Sudzha, while the central and eastern sectors are considered gray zones, according to an assessment issued Monday by the Institute for the Study of War.

Kyiv made its biggest gains in the first two days of its offensive, saying it had breached at least two Russian defensive lines.

But after Russia sent reinforcements to the area, the pace of Ukrainian advances in the region slowed, according to Moscow.

A Russian military official told the Russian news agency TASS on Tuesday that Moscow had managed to stop an uncontrollable movement by Ukrainian forces, while the Russian Defense Ministry said it had thwarted new Ukrainian attacks in the area.

As for the Russian reponse, the Russian President Vladimir Putin hasn’t made any public comment on the attack since August 7, when he declared that Ukraine was carrying out a large-scale provocation in the Kursk region.

“They are randomly firing various types of weapons, including missiles, at civilian buildings, residential homes and ambulances,” Putin said during a meeting broadcast on Russian television on Monday, announcing that he would hold a meeting of security officials to coordinate the response.

Russia said on August 9 that it was sending more troops and weapons to the Kursk region, including mobile rocket launchers and artillery.

Video published the same day by the Russian Defense Ministry’s Zvezda news platform showed what it said were military convoys heading to the border.

The Russian military says it has inflicted heavy damage on Ukraine, killing more than 100 soldiers and destroying more than 50 armored vehicles since the offensive began.

On this regard, Chechen Republic leader Ramzan Kadyrov said an army unit comprising Chechen fighters had been deployed in the Kursk region.

On Saturday, Belarus, an ally of Russia, ordered the deployment of military reinforcements, including infantry, air units, air defenses and missile systems, near the border with Ukraine in response to the Ukrainian attack, according to the Belarusian Defense Ministry.

Ukraine on the other hand, is keeping its operations, which are the largest on Russian territory since the outbreak of the war, secret.

On Tuesday, the Ukrainian president said that Russia brought war to his country and that it should feel the consequences.

On Monday, he confirmed the cross-border attack, saying it was a purely security issue, and that Kiev controlled the areas from which the Russian army struck in the Sumy region.

In the Sumy region, opposite the Kursk region, authorities have ordered the evacuation of about 20,000 civilians.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry stressed on Tuesday that the attack was legitimate but that it wasn’t seeking to annex Russian territory, but rather to create a buffer zone on the border to protect its people and army from Russian bombardment and weaken the Kremlin’s offensive!