The fighting in the region has raised concerns about the nuclear power plant there. | Photo: PTI
Ukraine’s military chief said Tuesday that the country’s forces have taken control of nearly 1,300 square kilometers (500 square miles) of Russia’s Kursk region since their surprise invasion three weeks ago.
General Oleksandr Syrskyi also said that Ukraine captured 594 Russian prisoners of war during the operation.
“The enemy is dragging troops from other directions, weakening them. They are trying to create a defensive ring around our attacking troop group and planning counterattacks,” Syrskyi said, commenting on the situation in the Kursk region. The captured area is about the size of Los Angeles.
His claim, which could not be independently confirmed, came hours after Ukraine suffered a second straight series of nighttime air and missile attacks from Russia.
Five people were killed and 16 wounded in the strikes, which President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said involved 81 drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles. He said four people were killed, but the governor of the Zaporizhzhia region later said a fifth person there had died from burns in the strikes.
“We will undoubtedly respond to Russia for this and all other attacks. Crimes against humanity cannot go unpunished,” Zelenskyy wrote on X.
The Kursk operation, the largest invasion of Russia since World War II, forced some 130,000 residents to flee their homes. Russia has sent reinforcements to the region, but it was unclear how much the moves would weaken Russia’s position in eastern Ukraine, where it has been making slow progress in attempts to gain ground in the Kharkiv region.
The Russian Defense Ministry said Tuesday that Ukraine had suffered heavy losses in Kursk — some 6,600 soldiers killed or wounded — and that more than 70 tanks had been destroyed, along with dozens of armored vehicles. The figures could not be independently confirmed.
In the Kiev region, which was hit by blackouts after Monday’s attack on power facilities across the country, five air raid sirens were sounded overnight. The regional government said air defenses destroyed all drones and missiles, but falling debris sparked wildfires.
Following Monday’s fire from more than 100 missiles and a similar number of drones in Ukraine, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said that “the energy infrastructure has once again become a target of Russian terrorists” and urged Ukraine’s allies to supply the country with long-range weapons and permission to use them on targets in Russia.
President Joe Biden called Monday’s Russian attack on energy infrastructure “outrageous” and said he had “reprioritized U.S. air defense exports to be sent to Ukraine first.” He also said the U.S. was “sending energy equipment to Ukraine to repair its systems and strengthen the resilience of Ukraine’s energy grid.” The Russian Defense Ministry said the strikes used “long-range precision air and sea weapons and drones against critical energy infrastructure facilities that support the operation of Ukraine’s military-industrial complex. All designated targets were hit.” In Russia, meanwhile, officials said four Ukrainian missiles were shot down over the Kursk region.
The fighting in the region has raised concerns about the nuclear power plant there. International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi visited the site Tuesday to inspect the plant but did not immediately provide a public assessment.
(Only the headline and image of this report may have been edited by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
First publication: Aug 27, 2024 | 11:37 PM IST