Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has declared ‘war is coming home to Russia’ as battalions of tanks bearing a new, distinctive symbol roar deeper into Kursk, with the Russian death toll increasing dramatically, sources claim, MailOnline reports.
Delivering a defiant address last night, Zelensky said it was ‘only fair’ that his troops ‘kill the Russian terrorists where they are and where they launch their strikes from’.
‘Russia must be forced into peace if Putin wants to continue waging war so badly… This always happens to those who despise people and any rules – Russia brought war to others, and now it is coming home,’ Zelensky said stoically.
‘Ukraine has only ever wished for peace – and it will ensure peace.’
The president’s commitment to wreak havoc in Kursk was evident in footage from the frontlines which has seen Ukrainian tanks emblazoned with a white triangle surging through Russian fields.
The marking, likened to the infamous Russian ‘Z’ that became inextricably associated with Vladimir Putin’s so-called ‘special military operation’, first appeared on Ukrainian vehicles in June – reportedly as a way to avoid friendly fire.
But it has since been painted on a host of Ukrainian heavy armour and is now seen as a sign of resistance in the face of Russian aggression.
Ukrainian commanders claim to have captured some 386 square miles of territory in just one week since their incursion began, as Kyiv’s soldiers scythed through Russian units caught completely unawares.
Several Russian warblogging channels claim huge numbers of Putin’s troops have been killed since the offensive began last Tuesday amid reports hospital and morgue workers are struggling to process a constant stream of bodies.
Meanwhile, sources in Russia’s SVR foreign intelligence service today described the Ukrainian offensive as a ‘crazy step that threatens to escalate far beyond Ukraine’.
Ukraine’s army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi yesterday declared his troops had ruthlessly and efficiently seized huge swathes of Russian territory in Kursk, claiming 1000 square kilometres – 386 square miles – were now under his control.
‘The troops are fulfilling their tasks. Fighting continues actually along the entire front line,’ Syrskyi said.
The Ukrainian operation is under tight secrecy, and its goals remain unclear with officials saying little other than to confirm the offensive was underway.
Analysts largely agree that the move could be geared towards putting Ukraine in a more favourable bargaining position in the event of ceasefire talks ahead of the US presidential election in November.
Ukrainian soldiers also told reporters that the offensive could help to draw Russian resources away from other key battles on Ukrainian soil, giving defenders time to regroup, re-equip and hopefully regain the initiative after months of grinding, bloody battles.
‘There have been no significant victories in Ukraine in recent months. Only the Russians were advancing,’ one Ukrainian fighter said.
He said the assault was de facto a win for Ukraine because it would force the Kremlin to reinforce other weak border regions with troops that could then not be deployed to Ukraine.
‘If they keep some grouping of forces in Kursk that they can’t use (in Ukraine) then it’s already a success. Let’s see how it develops,’ he added.
Russian forces meanwhile are still scrambling to respond to the surprise Ukrainian attack after almost a week of fierce fighting.
Acting Kursk Governor Alexei Smirnov reported that Ukrainian forces had pushed 7.5 miles into the Kursk region across a 25-mile front and currently control 28 Russian settlements – though reports suggest some Ukrainian units have forged as far as 20 miles deep into Russia.
Smirnov said 12 civilians have been killed and 121 others, including 10 children, have been wounded. About 121,000 people have been evacuated or left the areas affected by fighting on their own, he said.
The death toll among Russian troops is said to be far higher.
The family of Alexander Vasin – one of many Russian reservists killed in Kursk – told Russian opposition Telegram channel VChK-OGPU that he was confirmed dead on the second day of the Ukrainian offensive last Wednesday, but his body still had not arrived in the morgue due to the sheer quantity of casualties.
‘There are a lot of dead, so the bodies are not being taken to Rostov, there has been no identification since August 7,’ said the channel.
‘The deceased (Vasin) was never officially taken to the military morgue due to the large number of fallen soldiers.’
Last week, shocking footage emerged showing the remains of an entire Russian convoy that was struck in Kursk’s Rylsky district in what was reportedly a Ukrainian HIMARS strike.
Hundreds of Russian troops are said to have been killed in the standalone attack that left dozens of trucks and military vehicles lying charred and destroyed in the dirt, with the bodies of burned soldiers clearly littered about the scene.
The Ukrainian advance in Kursk has also delivered a blow to Putin’s efforts to pretend that life in Russia has been largely unaffected by the war.
An enraged President Putin yesterday lambasted the incursion as the Western plot in its war with Russia, using Ukrainian soldiers to do their dirty work.
‘It is now clear why the Kyiv regime refused our proposals to return to a peaceful settlement plan.
‘To all appearances, the enemy, with the help of its Western masters, is doing their will. By the hands of the Ukrainians, the West is at war with us.
‘But what kind of negotiations can we even talk about with people who indiscriminately strike at civilians, at civilian infrastructure, or try to create threats to nuclear power facilities?’ the Russian president asked rhetorically.
His comments regarding Ukraine’s alleged indiscriminate strikes on civilians and civilian infrastructure will undoubtedly be ridiculed in Kyiv and the West.
More than 120,000 Russian citizens have been forced to flee their homes amid widespread regional evacuations since last Tuesday, while 12 civilians are said to have died.
By contrast, the Kremlin chief’s so-called ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine has killed thousands of civilians and driven millions from their homes.
Russia has seen previous small-scale incursions into its territory since it invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
But the foray into the Kursk region marked the largest attack on Russian soil since World War II and constituted a milestone in the hostilities.
It was also the first time the Ukrainian army proper had spearheaded an incursion, rather than pro-Ukraine Russian fighters that had defected.
Retired General Andrei Gurulev, a member of the lower house of the Russian parliament, harshly criticised the military yesterday for failing to protect the border and accused Russian commanders of failing to report the facts to superiors.
‘Regrettably, the group of forces protecting the border didn’t have its own intelligence assets,’ he said on his Telegram channel.
‘No one likes to see the truth in reports, everybody just wants to hear that all is good.’
Despite the offensive in Kursk, Moscow’s troops have seemingly kept up their offensive along the frontline in Ukraine thus far – particularly in the battle for the strategic town of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region.
Russian forces stepped up their attacks on Pokrovsk over the last 24 hours, the Ukrainian military said in an update early this morning, reporting the largest number of battles in the area in a single day in a week.
Putin’s men have been trying to advance towards the Kyiv-held logistics hub of Pokrovsk for months, inching forward incrementally and taking advantage of greater troop numbers.
In a daily readout, the Ukrainian military’s General Staff said there had been 52 battles on the Pokrovsk front, a visible increase from figures of between 28 and 42 per day that have been reported over the past week.
Ukraine last reported more than that in the first days of August, before Kyiv’s forces launched their attack into Kursk.
The Russian attacks in the last 24 hours were focused around the villages of Hrodivka and Zhelanne, some 12 miles from Pokrovsk, the General Staff said.