Russia on Friday announced what it called a counterterrorism operation to increase security in the border area of Kursk, where attack this week by Ukrainian forces caught Russian forces off-guard and exposed military vulnerabilities in the near future War 2 and a half years.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said fighting continued in the Kursk region and that the army had carried out airstrikes against Ukrainian forces, including using thermobaric bombs that cause blast waves and create vacuums that suffocate targets.
The measures announced for Kursk, and for the neighboring areas of Belgorod and Bryansk bordering Ukraine, allow the government to move citizens, control telephone communications and requisition vehicles.
Press Service of the Ministry of Defense of Russia via AP
The attack that started on Tuesday was the biggest cross-border foray of the war and raising concerns about the war spreading well beyond Ukraine.
In neighboring Belarus, where Russian troops are deployed but have not sent their own troops to Ukraine, President Alexander Lukashenko said on Saturday that air defenses shot down an unidentified object launched from Ukraine that flew over Belarusian territory.
“I don’t know why Ukraine needs this. We have to find out. As I said before, we have made it clear that any provocation will not be answered,” Lukashenko said, according to the state news agency Belta.
Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin later identified the object as a drone and said Lukashenko had ordered reinforcements to be sent to the border area.
A missile fired by a Russian plane hit a Ukrainian shopping center on Friday, killing at least 14 people and wounding 44 others, authorities said.
KURSK REGION GOVERNOR’S ABSTINENCE/Handout via Reuters
The mall in Kostiantynivka, in eastern Donetsk region, is located in a residential area of the city. Thick black smoke rose overhead after the attack.
“This is another targeted attack in a crowded place, another act of terror by Russia,” Donetsk regional head Vadym Filashkin said in a Telegram post.
This is the second major attack in the city in almost a year. Last September, a Russian missile struck an outdoor market there, killing 17.
July saw the heaviest civilian casualties in Ukraine since October 2022, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said Friday. Conflict-related violence killed at least 219 civilians and injured 1,018 during the month, the mission said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said reinforcements were sent to Kursk to counter the Ukrainian offensive, with Russia using multiple rocket launchers, towed artillery guns, tanks transported on trailers and tracked vehicles.
The ministry reported fighting on the outskirts of Sudzha, about six miles from the border. The city has an important pipeline transit hub for Russian natural gas exports to Europe.
There is no reliable information about the daring Ukrainian operation, and its strategic objectives are unclear. Ukrainian officials declined to comment on the attack, which occurred about 320 miles southwest of Moscow.
Asked about the Ukraine attack, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Friday the United States was “in contact with our Ukrainian partners,” but he would not comment until “those conversations are complete.”
“There has been no change in our policy approach,” Kirby said when asked about US policy on the use of weapons. “They use it in areas where we have said before that they can use US weapons for cross-border attacks. The final goal here is to help Ukraine defend itself.”
Mathieu Boulegue, a defense analyst at the Chatham House think tank in London, said the Ukrainians appeared to have a clear objective, although he did not say what.
“The coordinated movement of ground forces responds to a clear military objective,” Boulegue told The Associated Press. Also, the raid has spooked the Russian public and sent a slap in the face to Russian President Vladimir Putin, offering Ukraine “a great PR coup,” he said.
The attack “is a massive symbol, a massive display of forces (showing) that the war is not frozen,” he said.
