'State Of Emergency' Declared In Russia's Kursk Region After Ukraine Attack, Locals Angry At Security Failure
Update(1658ET): The governor of the Russian border region of Kursk on Wednesday declared a "state of emergency" - and also tightened security around a nearby nuclear plant - amid a major ground and cross-border incursion by Ukrainian forces, led by fast moving armored vehicles, all of which kicked off early the day prior.
"To eliminate the consequences of enemy forces coming into the region, I took the decision to introduce a state of emergency in the Kursk region from 7 August," Kursk's acting Governor Alexei Smirnov said Wednesday evening.
The Russian Defense Ministry has described that "the enemy's movement further into Russian territory has been prevented" but that "the operation for the destruction of Ukrainian army units is continuing."
A lot of angry people in #Kursk's border villages.
— Tim White (@TWMCLtd) August 6, 2024
They feel abandoned and the rest of #Russia isn't being told the truth.
Many photos and videos started to appear of the alleged cross border attack by #Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/Ti4gJOsKzZ
The offensive has been ongoing since Tuesday morning, with Russian officials saying that up to 1,000 Ukrainian troops are involved. While few details have been able to be confirmed, some unverified reports have suggested Ukraine forces plunged as deep as 20km into Russia. Other regional reports say it was a few hundred Ukrainian soldiers leading the incursion.
Damage and civilian casualties on the Russian side are significant enough for locals to be openly angry at the border security failure:
A Moscow Times reporter saw residents of border areas in the Kursk region accusing officials of not doing enough to help them on social media.
“Nobody cared about us... the refugees from that ‘country’ [Ukraine] were given everything at once... and [local] people left for nowhere and with nothing,” wrote Lika Ivanova from Sudzha, a town in the Kursk region that came under massive shelling on Tuesday.
“Why did our state allow this? If you can't protect your people, do an evacuation. As a result, there are victims again,” Kursk resident Andrei Nezlobin posted on the VKontakte social media platform.
Regional governor Smirnov has confirmed that at this point thousands of people have been successfully evacuated from dozens of towns and villages along the border.
As we reported below, as of Wednesday evening Ukrainian MP Oleksiy Honcharenko announced that the Ukrainian army established control over the Sudzha gas hub, sending EU natural gas prices soaring.
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The Kremlin has announced that its forces thwarted a major ground assault from Ukraine forces into Russia's southwestern Kursk region. President Vladimir Putin called it a "large-scale provocation" which is being defended against for a second day. While the Ukrainian side has remained silent, that fighting in the area of the incursion has raged for two days straight does indeed suggest an attack which is large in scope.
Putin further described the "indiscriminate shelling of civilian buildings, residential houses, ambulances with different types of weapons" amid the assault, and called an emergency meeting of his top defense and security officials. The military is further sending assistance to the Kursk region, which lies over 300 miles from Moscow.
Russian state media has detailed that the cross-border assault began at 5:30am Tuesday morning and involved in initial wave of up to 1,000 militants. Kremlin sources further say that the Ukrainian side suffered at least 315 casualties, including at least 100 killed and 215 wounded.
The chief of the Russian General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, in a briefing given to Putin said the goal of the Ukrainian operation was to take over the Sudzhinsky district of Kursk Region.
There are meanwhile breaking reports the Ukrainian Armed Forces have captured the Sudzha gas measurement station, which is in the center of Sudzhinsky district, according to source RybarEU. European NatGas prices jumped on the news (to their highest since Dec 2023)...
Throughout the war there have been at least two other significant cross-border ground raids involving Ukrainian paramilitaries, but if the numbers are confirmed, this one is by far the largest.
...And clearly the operation had a specifically geopolitical goal related to Russia's hold over European gas (and as evidenced by the following chart, European gas prices are surging relative to US gas)...
In this case, the incursion appears to have been launched utilizing Ukrainian army regular forces and heavy equipment, with the possibility that West-supplied weapons systems were used.
"Ukraine also lost 54 armored vehicles, including seven tanks," Gen. Gerasimov's briefing noted.
There does appear to be significant damage and some civilian casualties in the Kursk Region as a result, as Associated Press reports:
The head of the region urged residents to donate blood due to the intense fighting. “In the last 24 hours, our region has been heroically resisting attacks” by Ukrainian fighters, acting Gov. Alexei Smirnov said on Telegram, adding that all emergency services were on high alert.
The same sources is reporting that the Ukrainian shelling has killed at least two people — a paramedic and an ambulance driver — and wounded 24, based on a Russian foreign ministry briefing.
Ukraine attack on Russia's #Kursk Region
— Russian Market (@runews) August 7, 2024
Fifteen people are taking refuge in the Svyato-Nikolaevsky Belogorsky Monastery in the Gornal district of Sudzha. The building is under constant shelling. pic.twitter.com/vSltZDrjqh
Thousands of Russians have reportedly fled the assault, and the region is still in chaos and under constant shelling.
Ukraine forces have reportedly seized the gas measuring station "Sudzha" on the western outskirts of the city of the same name. Gas is pumped there for transit to Europe.
developing...