14/08/24
Now RUSSIA is afraid: State of emergency is declared across entire state of Belgorod as Ukraine's surprise attack continues with huge overnight drone attack, putting Putin on the back foot
Russia's entire Belgorod region was put under a state of emergency early this morning with tens of thousands of people fleeing their homes as Ukraine launched waves of artillery and drone attacks.
'The situation in our Belgorod region remains extremely difficult and tense due to shellings from the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Houses are destroyed, civilians died and were injured,' governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram.
'Two settlements in Belgorod region were attacked by the Ukrainian Armed Forces' drones,' he said, adding that 'a state of emergency will be introduced on the regional level, followed by a request to the governmental commission to declare a federal state of emergency'.
Belgorod borders Ukraine's Kharkiv region and neighbours Kursk, where a state of emergency was implemented almost immediately after thousands of Kyiv's troops surged across the border and began seizing territory in the most significant cross-border attack on Russian soil since World War II.
Some 121,000 people have fled in Kursk alone since the start of the fighting, which has killed at least 12 civilians and injured 121 more, regional governor Alexei Smirnov told a meeting with Putin on Monday.
Close to 200,000 Russians are now said to have evacuated their homes amid the ongoing Ukrainian ground offensive in Kursk along with artillery and drone attacks in Belgorod.
The Ukrainian attack on Russia has dramatically changed the narrative around the war.
Russia had been advancing since the failure of Ukraine's 2023 counteroffensive to make any major gains against Moscow's forces.
But several Russian warblogging channels claim Moscow's forces suffered significant casualties since the offensive began last Tuesday amid reports hospital and morgue workers are struggling to process a constant stream of bodies.
Ukrainian commanders claim to have captured some 386 square miles - 1,000 kilometres - of territory in just one week since their incursion began as Kyiv's soldiers scythed through Russian units caught completely unawares.
Matthew Savill, the Director of Military Sciences at the RUSI thinktank, disputed the claim and said the total area covered by the incursion appears to be around 400 square kilometres.
Earlier this week Ukrainian troops were seen to have made major gains, advancing up to 20 miles deep into Kursk in some locations and seizing the strategic town of Sudzha, which is also a key transit hub for Russian gas.
As of Tuesday, however, Moscow's forces began to mount a more robust defence of their territory.
Army units, fresh reserves, army aircraft, drone teams and artillery forces have now been funnelled into the conflict to stop Ukrainian armoured mobile groups from moving deeper into Russia.
A Russian defence ministry statement issued Tuesday afternoon said that those units had managed to halt the Ukrainian offensive near the Kursk settlements of Obshchy Kolodez, Snagost, Kauchuk and Alexeyevsky.
But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his forces were continuing to advance there and ordered his generals to develop the next 'key steps' in the operation.
US President Joe Biden said that security officials were in constant touch with Ukraine over the invasion of Russia, which he said had 'created a real dilemma' for Putin.
The White House said Ukraine did not provide advance notice of its incursion and the United States had no involvement in the operation, though Russian officials have suggested Ukraine's Western backers must have known of the attack.
Most experts agree that Ukraine's incursion into Russia is a two-pronged tactic designed primarily to signal to its Western partners that its military is still a capable fighting force, while also seeking to put Kyiv in a more favourable bargaining position in the event of ceasefire talks ahead of the US presidential election in November.
That analysis was supported by a statement from a Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesperson, who today told reporters in Kyiv: 'The sooner Russia agrees to restore a just peace, the sooner Ukrainian raids on Russian territory will stop.'
The spokesperson did however add that: 'As long as Putin continues the war, he will receive such responses from Ukraine,' suggesting Kyiv could seek to extend the offensive indefinitely.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian soldiers told reporters this week that the offensive could help to draw Russian resources away from other key battles on Ukrainian soil, giving defenders time to regroup, re-equip and hopefully regain the initiative after months of grinding, bloody conflict.
Jacob Parakilas, research leader for Defence Strategy, Policy and Capabilities at the thinktank RAND Europe, said: 'Pushing into Russian territory upsets the narrative that Ukraine is on the defensive and embarrasses Putin.
'But on a more tactical level, it forces Russia to divert its own forces towards territorial defence rather than offence – although thus far it seems as though Russian forces are continuing to push forward on Ukrainian territory.'
Officials in Kyiv said yesterday they had observed some Russian units deployed in the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson sectors of the frontline in southern Ukraine had been withdrawn, most likely to be redeployed in Kursk.
And analysts from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said in their latest assessment of the frontlines in Ukraine that elements of several units deployed in Ukraine's Donetsk region had been rapidly redeployed to defend the Ukrainian advance in Kursk.
Parakilas explained that the long-term success of Kyiv's offensive in Kursk is partially dependent on Russia's willingness to sacrifice its gains in eastern Ukraine, particularly as summer rapidly gives way to autumn with cold conditions around the corner.
'The extent to which the Ukrainian offensive in Kursk will last depends heavily on the forces that Russia is willing to commit to retaking its own territory.
'Thus far it seems as though the bulk of the forces that have been engaging Ukrainian troops on Russian territory have been reserve and paramilitary units, which have apparently been unable to retake the territory lost to Kyiv's troops.
'If Russia is willing to pull more experienced and capable formations out of Ukraine and put them to the task, they would increase their odds of reversing the Ukrainian gains.
'But that would also force them to slow the pace of their own offensive on key strategic positions in eastern Ukraine in the key window of time remaining time before colder weather makes offensive operations more difficult.'
The Ukrainian advance in Kursk has also delivered a blow to Putin's efforts to pretend that life in Russia has been largely unaffected by the war.
An enraged Russian President on Monday lambasted the incursion as a Western plot in its war with Russia, using Ukrainian soldiers to do their dirty work.
'It is now clear why the Kyiv regime refused our proposals to return to a peaceful settlement plan.
'To all appearances, the enemy, with the help of its Western masters, is doing their will. By the hands of the Ukrainians, the West is at war with us.
'But what kind of negotiations can we even talk about with people who indiscriminately strike at civilians, at civilian infrastructure, or try to create threats to nuclear power facilities?' the Russian president asked rhetorically, before instructing his armed forces to 'dislodge' the Ukrainian troops.
His comments regarding Ukraine's alleged indiscriminate strikes on civilians and civilian infrastructure will undoubtedly be ridiculed in Kyiv and the West.
Close to 200,000 Russian citizens have now been forced to flee their homes in Kursk and Belgorod while 12 civilians are said to have died.
By contrast, the Kremlin chief's so-called 'special military operation' in Ukraine has killed thousands of civilians and driven millions from their homes.
Related Links
Back to index