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Russian Forces Engaged in Battle to Repel Cross-Border Raid in Kursk

August 7, 2024 TruthUSA

No group has claimed responsibility for the ongoing attacks inside Russia’s western Kursk region.

Russian troops are fighting to repel a new cross-border incursion from Ukraine targeting its western Kursk region.

Kursk regional governor Alexei Smirnov on Aug. 6 posted multiple warnings on the Telegram messaging platform about incoming missile strikes throughout the region, which borders Ukraine. Smirnov later said hundreds of Ukrainian forces and dozens of armored vehicles had pushed across the border and into Russia.

Smirnov and the Russian military have both attributed the Kurk assault to the Ukrainian military, although Ukrainian officials have yet to comment on the incursion.

Russia’s Ministry of Defense has reported directing artillery and airstrikes to repel the attack.

The Russian military said on Aug. 7 that they wounded or killed 260 enemy combatants, and struck 50 armored vehicles, including seven tanks. The Russian military also reported destroying two Buk M1 SAM self-propelled air-defense missile launchers, a mine-clearing vehicle, and an electronic warfare station supporting the cross-border attack.

“The operation to neutralize the [Armed Forces of Ukraine] units is in progress,” the Russian military said on Wednesday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the clashes in the Kursk region in a cabinet meeting on Wednesday and referred to the attack as “another major provocation” on the part of the Ukrainian government. Putin announced he would confer with leaders within the Russian Defense Ministry and Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) to address the ongoing fighting.

The Russian leader said he also spoke with Smirnov about the situation and had ordered civilian agencies to assist the residents of the region.

Attacks Inside Russia’s Borders

The fighting in the Kursk region is not the first time Russian forces have had to contend with incursions on their home soil since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022. Although the war has largely centered around Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region and its Black Sea and Azov Sea territories, Ukrainian aircraft, artillery, and drone operators have struck targets inside Russia’s borders throughout the conflict.

Russian forces have repelled previous overland attacks targeting its Belgorod and Kursk regions in May and June of 2023, and again in March of this year. In each instance, the Russian military reported wounding or killing dozens of cross-border combatants and destroying dozens of military vehicles before the attackers finally retreated.

The Russian Volunteer Corps (RVC), which presents itself as a group of Ukraine-based Russian citizens opposed to Putin, claimed responsibility for the 2023 Belgorod raids. The RVC also claimed a role in the March 2024 attacks in the Belgorod and Kursk regions, along with two more self-styled Russian dissident groups: the Freedom of Russia Legion and the Siberian Battalion. None of the three groups have claimed responsibility for the recent Kursk assault.

Each of the past cross-border raids has been relatively short-lived.

The first set of RVC attacks inside Belgorod came ahead of a highly-anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive that aimed to retake territory in southeast Ukraine.

The March attacks in the Belgorod and Kursk regions came just days before Russia’s presidential elections. Shortly after securing a sixth presidential term, Putin raised the prospect of expanding a buffer zone to ward off further cross-border assaults into Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) and new Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin (L) attend a cabinet meeting in Moscow, Russia, on Jan. 21, 2020. (Dmitry Astakhov, Sputnik, Government Pool Photo via AP)

Rob Lee, a retired U.S. Marine officer and a researcher for the Philadelphia-based Foreign Policy Research Institute, cast doubt that this latest Kursk assault will relieve much pressure on Ukrainian forces elsewhere along the front.

“Ultimately, the two previous large cross-border operations in May-June 2023 and March 2024 had little effect on the fighting on the priority axes,” Lee wrote in an analysis he shared to the X social media platform on Tuesday.

Lee assessed that the first cross-border attack on Belgorod last year had caught Russian forces off-guard, but that the second March assault was less successful.

A Ukrainian artilleryman mans a howitzer near Ukraine's Kharkiv region, on May 21, 2024. (Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters) — A Ukrainian artilleryman mans a howitzer near Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, on May 21, 2024. (Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters)

“It is unlikely this operation will have a significant effect on the course of the war, and previous crossborder operations did not have serious domestic political ramifications for Putin,” Lee said.

Russian forces have yet to fully drive back this current Kursk assault, and it remains to be seen how the fighting there will shape the wider conflict, now in its third year.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this article.

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