Thousands of Ukrainian troops on incursion to ‘destabilise’ Russia: Official

KYIV: Thousands of Ukrainian troops are taking part in an incursion aiming to destabilise Russia by showing up its weaknesses, a top Ukrainian official has told AFP.
Russia’s army on Sunday (Aug 11) appeared to acknowledge Ukraine had pierced deep into its territory in the six-day offensive, saying it had hit Ukrainian troops and equipment in places around 30km from the border.
“We are on the offensive. The aim is to stretch the positions of the enemy, to inflict maximum losses and to destabilise the situation in Russia as they are unable to protect their own border,” the security official said on condition of anonymity.
The shock offensive appeared to catch the Kremlin off guard.
The Ukrainian official also said Russia’s claims that it had deployed 1,000 troops were a major underestimation of the forces Kyiv has committed to the operation.
“It is a lot more … Thousands”.
After days of official silence, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy acknowledged the offensive for the first time in his nightly address on Saturday, saying that Kyiv was “pushing the war into the aggressor’s territory”.
Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and has waged an unrelenting offensive, occupying swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine and subjecting Ukrainian cities to daily missile and drone attacks.
After re-capturing large areas in 2022, Ukrainian forces have largely been on the backfoot and are increasingly struggling with manpower and arms supplies.
The cross-border incursion into Russia’s western Kursk region has been the largest and most successful such offensive by Kyiv so far.
Russia’s army has been forced to rush in reserves and extra equipment and evacuate at least 76,000 civilians from border areas.
The defence ministry on Sunday said it had “foiled attempts” by Ukrainian troops, using armoured vehicles “to break through deep into Russian territory”.
But in an apparent sign of how far some Ukrainian units have managed to advance, it said it had hit enemy units near the villages of Tolpino and Obshchy Kolodez, which are around 25km and 30km from the Russia-Ukraine border.
AFP journalists in Ukraine’s Sumy region, from where Ukraine launched the incursion, saw dozens of armoured vehicles daubed with a white triangle on Sunday – the insignia apparently being used to identify Ukrainian military hardware being used in the attack.
Neither side has given precise details on the extent of their deployments to the new conflict zone.
Ukrainian authorities in the Sumy region have also announced plans to evacuate some 20,000 people close to the Russian border, which has come under fire in response.
At an evacuation centre in the regional capital of Sumy, retired metal worker Mykola, who had fled his village of Khotyn some 26km from the Russian border, said the offensive had given him a morale boost.
“Let’s let them find out what it’s like. They don’t understand what war is. Let them have a taste of it,” the 70-year-old told AFP, despite being forced to leave his home.
Analysts said Kyiv may have launched the assault in a bid to relieve pressure on its troops in other parts of the sprawling front line.
But the Ukrainian official said there had been little effect so far on fighting in the east.
“Their pressure in the east continues, they are not pulling back troops from the area,” he said, adding that “the intensity of Russian attacks has gone down a little bit”.
Ukrainian troops would respect international humanitarian law while on Russian territory and had no plans to annex areas they currently hold, he added.
“There is no idea of annexation … We are operating in strict accordance with international law,” he said, contrasting this with alleged violations by Russian troops in occupied territory.
On Sunday, Russia promised to retaliate against Ukrainian attacks on its border regions.
“A tough response from the Russian army will not be long in coming,” said foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.
The White House said on Wednesday it was contacting Ukraine to learn more about the “objectives” of the incursion.
President Joe Biden in May allowed Kyiv to use American-supplied weapons against targets just across the Russian border to repel Moscow’s push on the Kharkiv region.
But White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby has said that “nothing had changed” about United States policy discouraging broader strikes or attacks inside Russia.
Asked whether Western partners had been kept in the dark about Ukraine’s offensive, the official said this was “incorrect”.
“Judging by how actively Western arms are being used, our Western partners played a part indirectly in the planning,” he said.
The official said he expected Russia would “in the end” manage to stop Ukrainian forces in Kursk and retaliate with a large-scale missile attack including “on decision-making centres” in Ukraine.
There has already been more intense bombardment of Ukraine’s Sumy region just across the border from Kursk.
And an overnight missile attack near the Ukrainian capital Kyiv killed a 35-year-old man and his four-year-old son, emergency services said.
Three other people, including a teenage boy, were wounded in the attack just east of the capital, which Zelenskyy said involved a North Korean-made missile.
He did not offer further detail but Ukrainian emergency services earlier said the victims’ home in the Brovary district was struck by debris from a downed Russian missile.
Footage posted by Ukraine’s State Emergency Service showed workers digging through a pile of debris in the darkness and lifting the body of a child from underneath it.
“According to preliminary information, the Russians used a North Korean missile in this attack – yet another deliberate terrorist strike against Ukraine,” Zelenskyy wrote on X, adding that experts were still examining the weapon.
Moscow’s overnight strike also included 57 Iranian-made attack drones that were launched across Ukraine, 53 of which were destroyed by air defences, Kyiv’s air force said.
It said that Russia had fired a total of four North Korean-made KN-23 missiles, but did not specify the fate of the other three.