Russian Forces continue to repel Ukraine's attempted invasion of Kursk Region

Earlier in the day, the Russian Army's Sever (North) Battlegroup and the approaching reserves prevented attempts by Ukrainian forces to raid deep into Russian territory, Sputnik Globe informs.

The Russian Armed Forces continue to tackle the Kiev regime’s attempted invasion of Russia’s Kursk region, the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) has said in a statement.

Earlier on Friday, forces including those from the Sever (North) Battlegroup inflicted fire damage on Ukrainian troops and equipment in the areas of Darino, Gogolevka, Melovoy, and Nikolsky settlements, and the western outskirts of Sudzha, according to the MoD.

In the Yuzhny area, the Russian combat aviation destroyed five Ukrainian Stryker armored personnel carriers, while in the settlement of Martynovka, Russian forces eliminated a Ukrainian column comprising of a tank, four armored personnel carriers and a Kozak armored combat vehicle.

Russian troops continue to destroy Ukrainian armored vehicles and manpower in the border area of the Russian Kursk region.

Using Lancets, artillery and guided missiles launched from a helicopter, Russian troops successfully hit Ukrainian tanks and armored vehicles.

Russian warplanes and missile forces have meanwhile defeated Ukrainian reserves in the territory of the Sumy region.

During the day, Ukrainian losses amounted to more than 280 militants and 27 armored vehicles, including four tanks, five armored personnel carriers, 18 armored combat vehicles, as well as six vehicles, a 155 mm M777 howitzer, a 155 mm self-propelled artillery "Krab" and a 152 mm D-20 gun.

In total, during the fighting in the Kursk region, they have lost up to 945 military personnel and 102 armored vehicles, including 12 tanks, 17 armored personnel carriers, six infantry fighting vehicles, 67 armored combat vehicles, as well as 12 vehicles, two self-propelled fire launchers of the Buk M1 anti-aircraft missile system, and three field artillery guns, per the MoD.

On Tuesday, the MoD said that Ukrainian forces had launched an offensive to seize territory in the Kursk region. The next day, Russian Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov said Russia’s air, missile and artillery strikes had prevented about 1,000 Ukrainian troops from advancing deep into Russian territory. Russian President Vladimir Putin, for his part, underscored that the Kiev regime had undertaken another large-scale provocation and was firing indiscriminately at civilian targets.

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday that it was building up forces, who were engaged in active hostilities against Ukrainian formations in the Sudzha district of the Kursk Region, by sending tanks and other heavy tracked military equipment there.

"The columns marching to the areas of the tasks include the BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launcher systems, towed artillery guns, tanks transported on trawls, heavy tracked vehicles, Ural and KamAZ vehicles," the ministry said in a statement, Sputnik Globe quotes.

The ministry also posted a footage showing the movement of the military equipment toward the Kursk Region.

In columns heading to the districts of the Kursk region, there are Grad MLRS, towed artillery guns, tanks transported…

On the morning of August 6, Ukrainian units, numbering up to 1,000 soldiers, attempted to seize a section of the Sudzha district in the Kursk region. According to a report delivered to President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday by Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, Russian forces halted the advance of the Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF) into the region. Gerasimov emphasized that the operation in the Kursk region would end with the enemy's defeat and the restoration of control up to the state border.

The Russian Ministry of Defense reported that the enemy has already lost up to 945 personnel and 102 pieces of armored equipment in the fighting in the region. The Investigative Committee noted that during the attempted invasion, several dozen Russian civilians, as well as military personnel, were injured. Acting Deputy Governor of the Kursk region, Andrey Belostotsky, reported that four people were killed, and the number of injured children has risen to nine.

A federal-level state of emergency has been declared in the Kursk region.

In this handout photo grab released by the Russian Defence Ministry, a view shows a strike of a Russian Lancet kamikaze drone on a US-made Bradley infantry fighting vehicle used by Ukrainian troops in the border area of the Russia's Kursk Region.

Ukraine, powered by Western arms, stuns Russia in cross-border assault, ‘The Washington Post’ writes. A surprise incursion into Kursk appeared to use U.S. and European armored vehicles. Washington offered no objections to the operation.

While the precise objective of Ukraine’s incursion is unclear, in addition to potentially diverting Russian troops from Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, Kyiv could be trying to gain leverage in future negotiations, analysts said.

While Ukraine might be trying to divert forces from the east to defend its new offensive in Russia’s Kursk region, Russia has more personnel and maneuverability than Ukraine. Kyiv has been mobilizing thousands of troops in recent months in a ramped-up conscription campaign, but those recruits need to undergo weeks of training before reaching the battlefield.

Ukrainian officials have expressed some sense of urgency to better their military position before the U.S. presidential elections in November. The last tranche of American security assistance was held up for more than six months by Republicans in Congress — a signal that future military aid is not guaranteed, especially if GOP nominee Donald Trump wins office. Trump has said that he would quickly push the two sides to reach a negotiated settlement of the war.

The Biden administration said Thursday that the operation is an acceptable use of U.S. weapons to strike inside Russia, conforming with a May policy change that allows Ukrainian commanders to pursue targets there if Russian forces are preparing to launch attacks into Ukraine.

“As they see attacks coming across the border, they have to be able to have the capabilities to respond,” Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told reporters during a news briefing.

…So, Washington openly admits that it allowed the use of American weapons against Russia on Russian territory. This is Washington's mistake.

Ukraine’s decision to launch a large amount of its scant military resources across the border into Russia – in pursuit of headlines but, thus far, an unclear strategic objective – marks a moment of either desperation or inspiration for Ukraine. And it does perhaps herald a new phase of the war.

On Tuesday, Kyiv took badly needed resources and fresh troops and launched them well inside Russia. The immediate effect satisfied two needs: a headline that involved Russian embarrassment and Ukrainian forward motion, and another that Moscow’s troops should scatter to reinforce their borders. After weeks of bad news for Kyiv, in which Russian forces have slowly but inexorably moved towards the Ukrainian military hubs of Pokrovsk and Sloviansk, Moscow is left scrambling to shore up its most essential front line – its own border.

But even as Kyiv declined to say anything Wednesday about what Russian President Vladimir Putin had called a “major provocation,” the wisdom of this gamble was openly questioned by some Ukrainian observers, CNN writes.

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