"The Russians Ran Away"

"Despite difficult, intense fighting, the advance of our forces in the Kursk region continues."

"[Ukraine has been able to] replenish [its numbers of Russian POWs to exchange for its own troops and] preparation for our next steps continues."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy 

"It's obvious that the enemy will keep trying to destabilize the situation in the border zone to try to destabilize the domestic political situation in our country."

"[Russia's main task is] to squeeze out, drive the enemy out of our territories and, together with the border service, to ensure reliable cover of the state border."

Russian President Vladimir Putin

"Ukraine is not interested in taking the territory of the Kursk region, but we want to protect the lives of our people."

"The purpose of this operation is to preserve the lives of our children, to protect the territory of Ukraine from Russian strikes."

Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi

"[Russian military actions in Ukraine bear] the hallmarks of genocide, inhumane crimes, and Ukraine has every right to wage war in such a way as to paralyze Russia in its aggressive intentions as effectively as possible."

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk

A Ukrainian military vehicle drives from the direction of the border with Russia carrying blindfolded men in Russian military uniforms, in the Sumy region, on August 13, 2024. Photo by ROMAN PILIPEY/AFP via Getty Images

Russia declared its forces successfully checked a plan by Ukrainian troops to expand its week-long incursion into the Kursk region. Interestingly, Ukraine now has control of 74 settlements in the region. On the other hand, Russian army units; fresh reserves, aircraft, drone teams and artillery forces managed to stop Ukrainian armoured mobile groups in their move to penetrate deeper into Russia near Kursk settlements, according to a Russian Defence Ministry statement.

Heorhii Tykhyi, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, emphasized that the cross-border operation had the intention of protecting Ukrainian geography from long-range strikes launched from Kursk, several thousand at last count. Russian military use of anti-aircraft missiles, artillery, mortars, drones, 255 glide bombs and over 100 missiles were dispatched from Kursk into Ukraine. Reasonably enough, President Zelenskyy feels it appropriate that Russian towns and village receive a little of the excitement that Ukrainian towns and villages have been exposed to, over the past few months.

 

People evacuated from a fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region sit next to tents at a temporary residence center in Kursk, Russia, on Monday, August 12.  AP

Attacks in eastern Ukraine have been intensified by Kremlin forces. Over a 24-hour period, Russian troops launched 52 assaults in the area of Pokrovsk, a town in Ukraine's Donetsk region, close to the front line, according to the Ukraine General Staff. Kremlin forces, in other words doubled the number of daily attacks occurring there a week earlier. The Ukrainian charge through to Russian soil that was initiated on August 6 has encompassed about 1,000 square kilometres of Russian territory, though the swift advance into Kursk has goals not yet understood.

According to analysts, Ukraine's wish to ease pressure on its front line by seeking to draw Kremlin forces into defending Kursk and other border areas may have been the motivating actor. Moscow, on the other hand, appears not to have succumbed, given the increased pressure it has mounted around Pokrovsk. Ukraine's largest attack on Russia since the Second World War has certainly rattled the Kremlin, compelling Mr. Putin to convene a meeting of top defence officials.

 

Ukraine appears to be seizing more Russian territory after it unexpectedly carried out an attack on the country's Kursk region.  CBC

 

Ukraine appears to have assembled thousands of troops -- estimated by some Western analysts, as up to 12,000 in recent weeks, an event that appears to have escaped the notice of the Russian military. "They didn't protect the border" explained a Russian serviceman. "They only had anti-personnel mines scattered around trees at the side of the road and a few mines that they managed to quickly throw along the highway. The Russians ran away. They didn't have time to press the detonator buttons."

 

Some 121,000 people have evacuated from Kursk or fled the areas affected by fighting. Washington-based Institute for the Study of War, stated it has appraised geolocated footage, indicating that Ukrainian forces had advanced up to 24 kilometres from the border. If nothing else, the Ukrainian incursion has given a blow to the Kremlin, highlighting its inability to protect the country, and reversing Putin's boast that Russia has been largely unscathed by the hostilities he initiated with his 'special military operation'. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv's forces are continuing to gain ground in Russia's Kursk region, and the nearby region of Belgorod has declared a regionwide state of emergency.