Ukrainian troops advance 30km into Russia, Kremlin says, as both sides blame each other for nuclear power plant fire
12 August 2024, 08:11 | Updated: 12 August 2024, 08:16
Ukrainian troops have advanced up to 30km into Russian territory, nearly a week after crossing the border, Moscow has said.
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Russia's defence ministry said its army was fighting to defend the villages of Tolpino and Obshchy Kolodez in the Kursk region. These are north of Sudzha, the border town which Ukraine and Russia had previously been fighting over.
Thousands of troops are taking part, making this by far the largest Ukrainian presence in Russia since the war began two and a half years ago. Previously, incursions have been limited to small bands of troops crossing the border.
Images from the scene show houses and tower blocks damaged in the fighting, as well as local residents scrambling to leave the area.
Separately, the governor of the neighbouring Belgorod region said the Krasnoyaruzhsky district, which is to the south of the Kursk region, was being evacuated, because of "enemy activity".
Read more: At least 11 killed in Russian strike on shopping centre in eastern Ukraine
Vyacheslav Gladkov said that the situation in the Kursk region was "very intense" and urged any Krasnoyaruzhsky residents still at home to leave.
Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Ukraine was "intimidating the peaceful population of Russia".
Volodymyr Zelenskyy only publicly acknowledged Ukraine's incursion on Saturday night, and suggested it was in response to attacks on his country from that region.
"Artillery, mortars, drones," he said. "We also record missile strikes, and each such strike deserves a fair response."
A Ukrainian official said: "We are on the offensive. The aim is to stretch the positions of the enemy, to inflict maximum losses and to destabilise the situation in Russia as they are unable to protect their own border".
Mr Zelenskyy added in a video message: "I thank every unit of our Defense Forces that is making this possible. Ukraine is proving that it truly knows how to restore justice and applies the necessary pressure on the aggressor."
"I would also like to thank our partners—everyone who made this week successful in implementing sanctions against Russia and those associated with it. This needs to be felt every week—that sanctions are indeed working, and anyone who tries to circumvent them faces a response from the world.
"We are preparing new measures to further limit the Russian state. I’m grateful for the new defense packages for Ukraine—this week, we received an American package, including missiles for Stingers, ammunition for HIMARS, and 155 mm artillery shells.
"We are working to ensure timely logistics so that this aid is felt on the frontlines as quickly as possible. We are also eagerly awaiting decisions on long-range capabilities from the United States, the United Kingdom, and France—strong decisions that will bring us closer to a just peace."
Vladimir Putin has called the attack a "major provocation", and Kremlin officials have claimed that Britain is involved.
Some onlookers have suggested that the Ukrainian incursion is an effort to deflect resources from military action on its own territory.
But there appears to have been little let up in Russian attacks. A man and his four-year-old son were killed in a Russian airstrike near Kyiv overnight. Last Friday, at least 14 people were killed and dozens more wounded in a missile strike on a shopping centre in a town in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.
Meanwhile Moscow and Kyiv both blamed each other for a fire at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station in eastern Ukraine, which is held by Russian troops.
The UN's nuclear watchdog said it saw "strong dark smoke" rising from the power plant - but added there was "no impact reported".
Mr Zelenskyy claimed Russia had started the fire to "blackmail" Ukraine. The local Kremlin-installed governor blamed Ukrainian shelling.
The fire was put out in the early hours of Monday morning.
The Zaporizhzhia station has not produced power for over two years. All of its six reactors were put into cold shutdown in April.
