Russia-Ukraine War: Russia Orders Evacuation of Kursk Region After Surprise Ukrainian Incursion

kyiv, Ukraine (AP) — Russia announced Saturday increased security measures in the border region of Kursk, where an incursion this week by Ukrainian forces caught Russian troops off guard and exposed its military vulnerabilities in the A war that has lasted for two and a half years.

President Volodymyr Zelensky appeared to indirectly refer to the operation in his late-night speech Saturday, the closest a Ukrainian official has come to acknowledging the operation.

Zelensky praised the Ukrainian combat brigades along the entire front line, including in the Sumy region, adjacent to Kursk. He also said that General Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, had sent him numerous reports on the situation on the front line “and our actions to push the war back to the territory of the aggressor.”

Fighting continues in the Kursk region and Russia is sending reinforcements to counter the Ukrainian raid, deploying several rocket launchers, towed artillery guns, tanks transported on trailers and heavy tracked vehicles, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

About 76,000 residents of the region have been evacuated, a spokesman for the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said on Saturday.

Fighting is taking place in the vicinity of Sudja, about 10 kilometers from the Ukrainian border. The city is home to a major transit hub for Russian natural gas exports to Europe.

The measures announced for Kursk, as well as for the neighboring regions of Belgorod and Bryansk, which border Ukraine, allow the government to relocate residents, control telephone communications and requisition vehicles.

The raid that began Tuesday is the largest cross-border incursion of the war and raises concerns that the fighting could spread far beyond Ukraine.

The strategic goals of this audacious Ukrainian operation are unclear and there is little reliable information about it. Ukrainian officials have declined to comment on the incursion, which is taking place about 500 kilometers southwest of Moscow.

Five days after its launch, Ukrainian officials have remained silent about the operation, but some Ukrainian soldiers appear to be breaking this policy of silence by posting videos and photos on social media.

In a video posted Friday evening, soldiers believed to be from the 61st Brigade hold a Ukrainian flag and appear to be standing outside a local Gazprom facility in Sudzha, according to a sign in the background.

“Everything is calm in the city,” they say, adding: “All buildings are safe, the strategic object of Gazprom in Sudja is under the control of the 99th mechanized battalion.”

A brigade press officer said he could not comment on the authenticity of the video. The Associated Press has established that there is a Gazprom facility about 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from the center of Sudja, in a nearby village on the outskirts of the city, about 8 kilometers (5 miles) from the border.

In another video, Ukrainian soldiers from Battalion 252 say they are in the village of Poroz in Russia’s Belgorod region, about 2 miles (3 kilometers) from the border. It is the first time an incursion into the area has been reported. The AP geolocated the building where the soldiers were located, but could not determine when the videos were filmed.

Asked about the Ukrainian incursion, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Friday that the United States was “in contact with our Ukrainian counterparts” but would not comment until “those conversations are complete.”

“There has been no change in our policy approaches,” Kirby said when asked about U.S. policy on weapons use. “They are using them in an area where we had previously said they could use U.S. weapons for cross-border strikes. The ultimate goal here is to help Ukraine defend itself.”

Mathieu Boulegue, a defence analyst at the Chatham House think tank in London, said the Ukrainians appear to have a clear objective, even if they do not say so.

“Such a coordinated movement of ground forces responds to a clear military objective,” Boulegue told the AP. In addition, the raid frightened Russian public opinion and slapped Russian President Vladimir Putin in the face, providing Ukraine with “a big communication coup,” he said.

The attack “is a massive symbol, a massive show of force (showing) that the war is not frozen,” he said.

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Jim Heintz reported from Tallinn, Estonia.