Ukrainian presidential aide, Mykhailo Podolyak has blamed Moscow for Kyiv’s incursion into Russia without taking direct responsibility for the most serious attack on Russian territory in months.
“The root cause of any escalation, shelling, military actions, forced evacuations and destruction of normal life forms – including within the Russian Federation’s own territories like Kursk and Belgorod regions – is solely Russia’s unequivocal aggression,” Podolyak said on social media.
According to the Russian army, pro-Kyiv forces stormed into southwestern Russia’s Kursk region on Tuesday morning, deploying about 1,000 soldiers and more than two dozen tanks and other armoured vehicles.
The Russian defence ministry revealed that Russian troops are still fighting Ukrainian units in the Kursk border region more than 48 hours after Kyiv mounted a major cross-border attack.
It said that soldiers “continue to destroy armed Ukrainian army units” with air strikes, rockets and artillery fire targeting troops that have entered two border districts.
“Over the past 24 hours, active operations by state border protection forces operating jointly with border guards, reinforcement units and deployed reserves, air and missile strikes and artillery fire have prevented the enemy’s advance.
“The troops are striking uncovered clusters of Ukrainian manpower and equipment. They are thwarting attempts by separate enemy units to break through deep into the territory in the Kursk area.”
Russian defence ministry
Meanwhile, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) disclosed that Ukrainian troops “have made confirmed advances up to 10 kilometres into Russia’s Kursk Oblast amid continued mechanised offensive operations on Russian territory.”
“The current confirmed extent and location of Ukrainian advances in Kursk Oblast indicate that Ukrainian forces have penetrated at least two Russian defensive lines and a stronghold,” it added.
The advance has centred on the logistical hub of Sudzha, a town of about 5,000 inhabitants located 8km (5 miles) from the Ukrainian border.
Russian Envoy Criticizes Attack On Kursk Region
Moscow’s Ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov criticized the attack on Russia’s borderline Kursk Region is a “terrorist action.”
“The Ukrainian actions are an evident terrorist action,” he said.
“No one hides the fact that American weapons have become a murder weapon of ordinary Russians. Attacks on schools, hospitals, ambulances and residential buildings in Russia cannot be recognized as a right of self-defense.”
Anatoly Antonov
He asserted that the provocations in Kursk Region stem from Kyiv’s difficulties on frontline.
“No matter how much Kyiv tries to stop our troops, they will systematically and progressively move forward, liberating Russian lands,” he pointed out in a statement published on the Russian Embassy’s Telegram channel.
Also,Antonov stated that the public statements of the US authorities in response to the “provocative outburst of Kiev thugs on the territory of the Russian Federation are truly outrageous.”
“Once again, the officials did not utter a word of criticism about their clients, nor regret for the victims of the tragedy,” Antonov noted.
Moreover, the envoy urged US to stop weapons supplies to Ukraine “and pull back neo-Nazis from the Armed Forces of Ukraine.”
“I would like to confirm that the Russian borders are sacred. None of the terrorists will escape retribution,” the envoy added.
Separately, Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev wrote on Telegram that Russia needs to learn lessons from the Ukrainian army’s actions on the border with the Kursk Region and “resolutely crush the enemy.”
Medvedev stressed that “the reasons and goals of the terrorist operation of Ukrainian Nazis in the Kursk Region have been thoroughly and objectively analyzed.”
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