KYIV – Russia on Saturday announced increased security measures in the border region of Kursk, where an incursion this week by Ukrainian forces caught Russian troops off guard and exposed its military vulnerabilities in the nearly 2½-year-old war.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appeared to refer indirectly to the operation in his nightly address on Saturday, the closest a Ukrainian official has come to acknowledging it.
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Zelenskyy commended Ukrainian combat brigades across the front line, including the Sumy region, which lies adjacent to Kursk. He also said that Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander of Ukraine's armed forces, had sent him multiple reports about the front-line situation “and our actions to push the war out into the aggressor's territory.”
Fighting was continuing in the Kursk region and Russia is sending reinforcements to counter Ukraine’s raid, with Russia deploying multiple rocket launchers, towed artillery guns, tanks transported on trailers and heavy tracked vehicles, Russia’s Defense Ministry said.
About 76,000 residents of the area have been evacuated, a Russian Emergencies Ministry spokesman said Saturday.
There is fighting on the outskirts of Sudzha, about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the Ukraine border. The town has an important pipeline transit hub for Russian natural gas exports to Europe.
The measures announced for Kursk, and for the neighboring Belgorod and Bryansk regions that border Ukraine, allow the government to relocate residents, control phone communications and requisition vehicles.
The raid that began on Tuesday is the largest cross-border foray of the war and raises concerns about fighting spreading well beyond Ukraine.
The strategic aims of the daring Ukrainian operation are unclear and there is little reliable information. Ukrainian officials have refused to comment on the incursion, which is taking place about 500 kilometers (320 miles) southwest of Moscow.
Five days after it was launched, Ukrainian officials have remained quiet about the operation, but some Ukrainian soldiers appeared to break with that policy of silence by posting videos and photos on social media.
In one video posted late Friday, soldiers purported to be from the 61st Brigade hold a Ukrainian flag appear to be standing outside a local Gazprom facility in Sudzha based on sign in the background.
“Everything is calm in the town,” they say, adding, “All the buildings are safe, strategic object of Gazprom in Sudzha is under the control of the 99th Mechanized Battalion.”
A press officer for the brigade said they couldn't comment on the authenticity of the video. The Associated Press has established that there is a Gazprom facility about 2 kilometers (1¼ miles) from the center of Sudzha, in a neighboring village on the outskirts of the town about 8 kilometers (5 miles) from the border.
In another video, Ukrainian soldiers from the 252 Battalion claim to be standing in the village of Poroz in Russia’s Belgorod region, about 3 kilometers (nearly 2 miles) from the border. The video marks the first time any incursion into that area has been reported. The AP geolocated the building where the soldiers stood, but couldn't determine when the videos were shot.
Asked about Ukraine’s incursion, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Friday the United States was “in touch with our Ukrainian counterparts,” but that he wouldn't comment until “those conversations are complete.”
“There’s been no changes in our policy approaches,” Kirby said when asked about U.S. policy on use of weapons. “They’re using it in an area where we had said before that they could use U.S. weapons for cross-border strikes. The end goal here is to help Ukraine defend itself.”
Mathieu Boulegue, a defense analyst at the Chatham House think tank in London, said the Ukrainians appear to have a clear goal, even if they’re not saying what it is.
"Such a coordinated ground force movement responds to a clear military objective,” Boulegue told the AP. Also, the raid has spooked the Russian public and delivered 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 force (showing) that the war is not frozen,” he said.
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Jim Heintz reported from Tallinn, Estonia.