Russian President Vladimir Putin is reportedly shifting troops out of Ukrainian territory to confront Ukrainian forces that have made a sudden push into Russian territory, according to multiple reports.
Ukraine’s top commander claimed Monday that troops have now seized roughly 400 miles of the Kursk region in Western Russia, in an offensive that began last week, according to several reports. The incursion marks the first time Ukrainian forces have broken through into Russian territory, an operation which reportedly caught the Biden administration off guard, U.S. officials told The Wall Street Journal. (RELATED: Former Marine Reflects On Realization Of Freedom After Russian Imprisonment)
Ukrainian servicemen operate a Soviet-made T-72 tank in the Sumy region, near the border with Russia, on August 12, 2024, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine launched a surprise offensive into the Russian border region of Kursk on August 6, 2024, (Photo by ROMAN PILIPEY/AFP via Getty Images)
“We are advancing in the Kursk region, one to two kilometers in various areas since the beginning of the day,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a statement on Tuesday. “We have captured more than 100 Russian servicemen during this period.”
Ukraine has sent over 1,000 troops to Kursk for the offensive, Russia’s top general estimated, but U.S. officials told The New York Times the number was likely several thousand. It was unclear how many Russian troops were being pulled away from the frontline to address the incursion, the officials said.
Russia’s lines surrounding Kursk had gaps that allowed Ukrainian troops to stage the operation, something Kyiv had been hoping to do for some time, one U.S. official told the WSJ.
TOPSHOT – In this pool photograph distributed by Russian state owned agency Sputnik, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin (L) chairs a meeting regarding the situation in the Kursk region, in his residence in Novo-Ogaryovo outside Moscow, on August 12, 2024. (Photo by GAVRIIL GRIGOROV/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
The White House said on Tuesday that it was uninformed of Ukraine’s plans to launch the incursion last week and was not involved in the effort.
“We had nothing to do with this. This is something for the Ukrainians to speak to their military operations,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Tuesday. “But we have no involvement.”
Ukraine’s incursion is a departure from the country’s traditionally defensive posture against Russia since Moscow initiated war in 2022. Ukrainian forces are receiving weapons aid from a host of Western countries, but the country’s manpower problems have created challenges for its odds of a military victory against Russia, which has a higher manpower advantage and a seemingly sustainable defense industrial complex.
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhiy Tykhi told reporters on Monday that the objective wasn’t to occupy Russian territory, but rather to “protect the territory of Ukraine from Russian attacks,” according to the WSJ.
“The sooner the Russian Federation agrees to restore a just peace…the sooner the raids of the Ukrainian defense forces on the territory of the Russian Federation will stop,” Tykhi said.
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