Bloggers contradict Kremlin
Ukrainian soldiers conquer Russian border towns
07.08.2024, 10:07 a.m.
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Ukrainian soldiers crossed the Russian border on Tuesday. According to the Defense Ministry in Moscow, the situation in the Kursk region is under control. Russian military bloggers, however, disagree. Kremlin soldiers are being pushed back and in some cases surrounded.
One day after Ukrainian attacks on Kursk in western Russia that left several people dead, the region has again been the target of Ukrainian air strikes, according to authorities. Two Ukrainian missiles were shot down by air defense systems in the area bordering Ukraine, regional governor Alexei Smirnov said on Telegram. In addition, three Ukrainian drones were repelled.
According to Russian sources, Ukrainian forces attempted to attack Kursk the day before. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, around 300 soldiers, 11 tanks and around 20 other armored vehicles were involved. The ministry said it destroyed 16 vehicles. According to authorities, a total of five people were killed in the attacks. The Defense Ministry claimed to have completely repelled the attack. “After suffering significant losses, the remnants of the sabotage group retreated to Ukrainian territory,” it said in a statement on Tuesday.
However, information from Russian military bloggers paints a different picture. Russian soldiers were forced out of Sverdlikovo during the night. In the border town of Oleshnya, a good ten kilometers to the south, Russian troops were even said to have been surrounded. There are unconfirmed reports of Russian soldiers surrendering. Videos were already circulating on social media on Tuesday that are said to show captured Russian soldiers.
Russian military bloggers claim that Chechen fighters had previously secured the Russian border. When the Ukrainian soldiers attacked, however, they simply abandoned their positions and retreated. The military blog Rybar, which is very popular in Russia, reports that Ukrainian soldiers even managed to to entrench themselves on Russian territoryThe population of the town of Sudscha – about ten kilometers behind the border – was brought to safety.
Previous advances were symbolic
In addition, Russian sources report that the Ukrainian military has stationed air defense systems in the Sumy region. This is intended to prevent or hinder the use of Russian fighter jets and helicopters over the Kursk region. According to unconfirmed reports, a Russian Mi-28 helicopter was shot down over the Kursk region by a Ukrainian drone.
During the course of the war, the Russian border region of Belgorod was occasionally attacked by groups of anti-Kremlin Russian volunteers fighting on the Ukrainian side. However, these attacks were usually very limited in terms of space and time. Western military experts attributed primarily symbolic significance to them. This suggested to the Russian population that the Kremlin was not in a position to protect its own borders and its own population in the long term. In military terms, the attacks on Russian territory to date have left hardly any trace.