August 24, 2024
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s military says it used high-precision U. S. bombs to strike Russia’s Kursk region, recapturing some territory in Ukraine’s eastern Kharkiv region, which has been under Russian offensive since the spring.
The commander of the Ukraine Air Force, Lt. Gen. Mykola Oleschuk, released a video Thursday night purporting to show a Russian platoon base attacked in Kursk, where Ukrainian forces introduced a wonderful cross-border raid on Aug. 6. He said the GBU-39 bomb attack led across the United States to Russian casualties and destruction of equipment.
Video showed explosions and plumes of smoke emerging at the scene.
Many supporters of Ukraine oppose the country’s donating weapons for any purpose other than defensive. However, Ukraine has argued that its incursion into Kursk was mainly defensive and aimed to minimize attacks on Ukrainian soil from that Russian region.
U. S. officials have said Washington supports Ukraine’s use of short-range weapons, such as bombs, in its cross-border attacks. So far, the United States has only limited the use of longer-range ATACMS missiles for deep movements in Russia.
U. S. President Joe Biden said on the eve of Ukraine’s Independence Day that he spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday to “express United States’ unwavering assistance to the Ukrainian people. “Biden also announced a new military aid package for Ukraine, adding air defense missiles, anti-drone equipment, anti-armor missiles and cellular rocket systems.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Friday that U. S. officials were in almost daily contact with their Ukrainian counterparts and had made no recent adjustments to the rules on how U. S. weapons can be used in the offensive. from Kursk.
“They are allowed to use devices through the United States to protect themselves against Russian aggression. And, as you know, the president has allowed them to use U. S. munitions across that border to deal with imminent threats,” Kirthrough told reporters in Washington.
Kirby added that it is unclear how successful the Ukrainian operation in Kursk will be in the long term. On Friday, Russian officials reported some good luck in pushing back Ukrainian forces in some pockets of the Kursk region.
Separately, Ukraine’s 3rd Separate Assault Brigade said its forces had pushed about two square kilometers (about three-quarters of a square mile) into the Kharkiv region. No details have been revealed about the timing, scale or dominance of the offensive, and it is difficult to expect its impact on the battlefield.
Ukrainian forces gained new momentum this month after backlogged U. S. arms shipments were nonetheless released and Kyiv introduced a surprise offensive in the Kursk region of western Russia earlier in the month.
At the same time, Ukraine has escalated its drone war against military and oil targets, sparking deep fires in Russia this week. New major points emerged Friday about the damage and injuries caused by some of those drone strikes.
A Ukrainian drone attack targeting a remote Russian air base in the Volgograd region has caused significant damage to an airfield believed to house gliding bombs used in Moscow during the war, satellite images analyzed by The Associated Press showed on Friday. .
Meanwhile, an attack on a cargo ferry at the port of Kavkaz in Russia’s Krasnodar region injured another thirteen people on Thursday, the official Russian news firm Tass reported on Friday. Tass, citing fitness officials, said 4 of the injured were hospitalized and the user is still missing.
Ukraine’s progress has reshaped the battlefield and lifted Ukrainians’ spirits, 10 years after Russia first invaded their country, and two years after Moscow introduced a full-scale invasion that caused mass death and destruction and created the largest refugee crisis in Europe since the World Cup. Second War.
Ukraine and its Western allies hope that the regained momentum could strengthen Kyiv’s hand on the diplomatic front.
The stopover in kyiv via Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who met President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday, is heavily monitored. Ukrainians hope that Modi, who maintains cordial and economic relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, can play a role in building a negotiated peace. .
The incursion into Russia highlighted Russian vulnerabilities, but it also tested Ukrainian forces, who were already fighting on the front lines for many kilometers (miles). This would have possibly compromised Ukraine’s ability to contain Russian forces who have slowly but actually gained ground in the Donetsk region, diverting Ukrainian forces who might otherwise be bolstering their defenses there.
It is not yet clear how long Ukraine will be able to keep the land it has taken from Russia.
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday that its troops had repelled Ukrainian attempts to advance towards the villages of Borki and Malaya Loknya in the Kursk region. The ministry also said it eliminated a reconnaissance and sabotage organization near Kamyshevka, 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of Sudzha, which the Ukrainians captured.
Ukraine’s 3rd Separate Assault Brigade said last Thursday that Ukrainian infantrymen had taken control of a domain controlled by a Russian battalion, as well as some fortresses.
Brigade commander Andrii Biletskyi said they attacked Russian troops who had superiority “and won,” adding that the ratio of forces on the battlefield is 2. 5:1 in favor of Moscow.
The Associated Press could not independently determine the claims and there was no immediate comment from Russia.
Russia launched an offensive in the Kharkiv region in May that made some progress but was temporarily halted. Fighting in this domain has subsided as the Russian military has focused its efforts on Donetsk, a component of Moscow’s Donbas trading region. officially annexed but controls it completely.
The Russian advance in spring on Kharkiv was seen as a sign that Ukraine’s position was weakening in the face of delays in aid from the Western military.
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