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MAJOR UKRAINIAN INCURSION

Intense battles rage inside Russia
Moscow imposes security regime on border regions; Belarus destroys ‘drones from Ukraine’
REUTERS, Moscow
Russia was fighting intense battles yesterday against thousands of Ukrainian troops as deep as 20 km (12 miles) inside the Kursk region after Ukraine’s biggest attack on Russian sovereign territory since the start of the war in 2022.
Ukrainian forces rammed through the Russian border early on Tuesday and swept across some Western parts of Russia’s Kursk region, a surprise attack that may be aimed at gaining leverage in possible ceasefire talks after the US election.
Supported by swarms of drones and heavy artillery fire, Ukrainian units moved quickly to carve out a sliver of the Western Russian territory beside the border while sabotage units pierced deeper inside Russia, according to Russian war bloggers.
“The armed forces continue to repel the attempted invasion by the Ukrainian armed forces,” Russia’s defence ministry said yesterday, adding that intense battles were focused around Malaya Loknya, Olgovka and Ivashkovskoye, settlements around 10-20 km inside Russia.
In a sign of the gravity of the situation, Russia imposed a sweeping security regime in three border regions yesterday while Belarus said it had repelled what it thinks was a major drone attack from Ukraine.
President Vladimir Putin cast the Ukrainian attack as a major provocation and though Russia’s top general, Valery Gerasimov, said on Wednesday that Ukraine’s incursion had been halted, Russia has thus far failed to push the Ukrainian forces back over the border.
Russian military bloggers said yesterday the situation had stabilised after Russia rushed in forces to halt the surprise advance, though they said Ukraine was swiftly building up forces.
The Ukrainian attack has prompted some in Moscow to question why Ukraine was able to pierce the Kursk region so easily after more than two years of the most intense land war in Europe since World War Two.
“A full scale military operation is underway against a very serious enemy who are certainly not idiots,” said Yuri Podolyaka, a popular Ukrainian-born, pro-Russian military blogger. He said that Russian aviation had saved the day by pummeling scores of invading Ukrainian units, but also said the truth should be told about the gravity of the situation.
U.S. SUPPORT
The battles around Sudzha come at a crucial juncture in the war: Kyiv is concerned that U.S. support could weaken if Republican Donald Trump wins the November presidential election.
Trump has said he would end the war, and both Russia and Ukraine are keen to gain the strongest possible bargaining position on the battlefield.
Ukraine wants to pin down Russian forces, which control 18% of its territory, while showing the West that it can still muster major military operations that hurt Russia even if the Kursk front is unlikely to change the outcome of the war.
Ukraine has not commented directly on the attack but video posted on Ukrainian media purported to show Ukrainian soldiers in control of a gas measuring facility in the border town of Sudzha, where Russian natural gas flows into Ukraine for transit to Europe.
Reuters could not verify the video. Reports from Russian sources said Ukraine was in control of some areas of Sudzha. Gas was still flowing through the pipeline yesterday.