As Ukrainian forces stage an incursion into western Russia, this house was damaged in the town of Sudzha. The photo was published on Tuesday by the governor of the Kursk region, Alexei Smirnov, on his Telegram channel. Russian military officials say about 1,000 Ukrainian troops have entered Russia.
Acting governor of the Kursk region Alexei Smirnov’s Telegram Channel / AP
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Acting governor of the Kursk region Alexei Smirnov’s Telegram Channel / AP
KYIV, Ukraine — In a brazen attack that caught Russia off guard, Ukraine’s military has sent a large ground force across its border and into western Russia.
Ukrainian soldiers crossed the northeastern border of the country on Tuesday and now appear several kilometers into the Kursk region of Russia, where they operate in several countries.
General Valery Gerasimov, Russia’s chief of staff, said at a Kremlin briefing on Wednesday that about 1,000 Ukrainian troops are taking part, backed by dozens of armored vehicles. Russia has sent reinforcements in an attempt to push the Ukrainians back across the border.
Russian leader Vladimir Putin listened to the assessment with a look that appeared to be a mixture of impatience and disgust. He called the Ukrainian incursion a “large-scale provocation.”
Ukraine has previously supported Russian exiles who have carried out limited cross-border raids, but has never carried out its own operation on such a scale.
Ukraine is not commenting on current developments, and many details remain sketchy. In an interview with NPR, Mykhailo Podolak, one of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s top advisers, declined to provide any specifics.
But in general terms, he seemed to provide the rationale for the operation, saying that Ukraine needed to get Russia out of the border areas where it was launching so many attacks.
“We have to push them into some areas if we want to make these areas safe for us. We create this buffer zone,” said Podolyak.
However, it is far from clear that Ukraine can carve out and maintain a buffer zone in Russian territory.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, chairs a meeting with top security officials on Wednesday to discuss Ukraine’s military incursion into western Russia.
Aleksey Babushkin/AP/Pool Sputnik Kremlin
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Aleksey Babushkin/AP/Pool Sputnik Kremlin
Challenges for Ukraine
Ukraine has far fewer troops than Russia, and some military analysts question whether this incursion makes military sense. They say that Ukraine needs all the forces to be able to gather to defend its own territory.
Poldolak acknowledged that Ukraine has had a tough time in eastern Ukraine, where Russia has seized a number of villages in recent weeks. While neither country is critical, the Russian offensive has gained momentum in a war where the front line has changed little in the past year.
Ukrainians say the main Russian target appears to be the city of Pokrovsk, which serves as a transportation hub to send Ukrainian troops and supplies to the front line.
Russia has two key advantages in the fight. With many more ground troops, the Russians often send wave after wave of soldiers to carry out assaults. Sometimes they even attack motorcycles, although they are often cut off by Ukrainian fire. However, the Russians gained ground despite suffering heavy losses.
Second, the Russians have much greater air power and are deploying as many as 250 jet fighters and bombers to frontline areas, according to Podolyak.
Ukraine received its first batch of F-16 fighters last week. But 10 or more planes is a far cry from the 100-plus planes Ukraine says it needs to effectively control Russia in the sky.
“Today, our biggest problem is their supremacy in the air, the huge amount of glide bombs that gives them the opportunity to attack us from longer distances,” Podolyak said.
As the name suggests, glide bombs can be guided to a target from a distance and have been difficult for the Ukrainians to stop.
