Moscow, Russia:

Dozens of residents from the Russian border region of Kursk have been returned to Russia from Ukraine following rare and “painstaking” talks between Moscow and Kyiv, Moscow said Friday.

Kyiv launched a major ground offensive into the Kursk region in August, capturing large swathes of Russian territory home to thousands of civilians.

It was not clear why the residents had been transported into Ukraine, and there was no immediate comment from Kyiv.

“Today, 46 residents of the Kursk region returned to Russia from Ukraine as a result of a negotiation process with the Ukrainian side,” Russian human rights ombudsman Tatiana Moskalkova said.

The residents were all from the Sudzhansky district, home to the border town of Sudzha which Ukraine captured shortly after launching its offensive, according to local governor Alexei Smirnov.

“The painstaking and lengthy negotiations to return our fellow countrymen to their homeland have brought results,” he said on Telegram.

The residents included 12 children and were returned via Belarus, with all of them being given “all necessary assistance”, he added.

One of the children being returned in the deal was three-year-old Darina, her mother, Anastasia Gridina, told AFP.

“They are already on the way. In four hours I will meet Darina,” she said.

Gridina had gone to Moscow for temporary work, leaving her daughter with her grandmother in the Kursk region village of Lebedevka when Ukraine launched its shock offensive.

In October she told AFP she had been pleading for help “everywhere,” even writing a personal letter to President Vladimir Putin.

At one point she tried to cross the front line herself, but was forced to turn back.

The deal comes at a tense moment in the Ukraine conflict, with Kyiv firing British and US-supplied long-range missiles into Russia and Moscow firing a hypersonic missile at its neighbour.

The limited return of civilians, as well as exchanges of captured soldiers and bodies of killed fighters have become the only areas of co-operation between the two sides, which have been fighting since Moscow launched its full-scale offensive in February 2022.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Kurchatov, Russia:

UN nuclear watchdog head Rafael Grossi kicked off a visit Tuesday to “independently assess” conditions at Russia’s Kursk nuclear plant following Ukraine’s unprecedented cross-border offensive into the Russian region.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has repeatedly warned of the dangers of fighting around nuclear plants following Russia’s full-scale military offensive into Ukraine in February 2022.

A spokesperson for Russia’s nuclear agency, Rosatom, told AFP that Grossi had arrived at the power plant as he personally leads a mission to assess the situation there, which he has warned is “serious”.

In the first days of the conflict, Russian forces seized the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southern Ukraine, and also briefly held the decommissioned Chernobyl plant in the north.

Ukraine launched its surprise incursion into Kursk on August 6 and has said it is making advances, even as Russian forces move deeper into eastern Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin last week accused Ukraine of trying to attack the Kursk nuclear power plant, which is less than 50 kilometres (30 miles) from fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces.

The IAEA confirmed that it had been told by Russian authorities that drone fragments were found last Thursday roughly 100 metres from the Kursk plant’s spent nuclear fuel storage facility.

Serious situation

Grossi said Monday he would “independently assess what is happening” at the plant, “given the serious situation”.

“The safety and security of all nuclear power plants is of central and fundamental concern to the IAEA,” Grossi said in a statement.

The plant lies some 60 kilometres from the Russia-Ukraine border, next to the Seym river, and less than 50 kilometres away from Kursk city, the region’s capital with a population of around 440,000.

The plant has four reactor units though only two are operational and two more reactors are under construction.

All four reactors are the same type as Ukraine’s Chernobyl nuclear power plant, without a protecting dome around them.

In 1986, a reactor at Chernobyl exploded during a botched safety test, resulting in the world’s worst nuclear accident that sent clouds of radiation across much of Europe and forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate.

Tariq Rauf, a former IAEA official, said these types of reactors have since undergone “significant safety upgrades”.

Robert Kelley, a former IAEA director of inspections, said: “The possibility of a Chernobyl-type incident with the reactor blowing up and burning for days is zero.”

But he added that an errant bomb or large artillery strike on spent fuel storage ponds could damage the fuel and release radioactive gases and particles.

Maximum restraint

Russia has repeatedly sounded the alarm over a possible hit since Ukrainian troops and tanks charged into Kursk.

The IAEA urged both Russia and Ukraine to exercise “maximum restraint” to “avoid a nuclear accident with the potential for serious radiological consequences”.

On Sunday, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukrainian forces had taken control of two more Russian settlements in Kursk region, adding to dozens already captured.

More than 130,000 people have been displaced so far.

Kyiv has said the offensive aims to prevent cross-border strikes from Russia into its Sumy region and to force Russia to the negotiating table “on our own terms”.

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A view of a damaged bridge over the Seym river in the Glushkovo district, following a Ukrainian strike in the Kursk region, Russia, in this still image taken from a social media video released on August 16, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Ukraine had used Western rockets, likely U.S.-made HIMARS, to destroy a bridge over the Seym river in the Kursk region, killing volunteers trying to evacuate civilians.

“For the first time, the Kursk region was hit by Western-made rocket launchers, probably American HIMARS,” Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said late on Friday (August 16, 2024) on the Telegram messaging app.

“As a result of the attack on the bridge over the Seym River in the Glushkovo district, it was completely destroyed, and volunteers who were assisting the evacuated civilian population were killed.”

Also Read: Persisting brutality: On Russia and the Ukraine war

Ukrainian army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Friday that Kyiv’s forces were advancing between 1 and 3 km in some areas in the Kursk region, 11 days since beginning an incursion into Russia.

Kyiv has claimed to have taken control of 82 settlements over an area of 1,150 sq. km. in the region since Aug. 6.

Reuters could not independently verify either side’s battlefield accounts.

Russia has accused the West of supporting and encouraging Ukraine’s first ground offensive on Russian territory and said Kyiv’s “terrorist invasion” would not change the course of the war.

The U.S., which has said it cannot allow Russian President Vladimir Putin to win the war he launched in February 2022, so far deems the surprise incursion a protective move that justifies the use of U.S. weaponry, officials in Washington said.

Russia kept up its assault on Ukraine Saturday even as Ukrainian forces pushed into Russia’s Kursk border region.

A Russian missile sparked a blaze in the city of Sumy that injured two people and also damaged cars and nearby buildings, said Ukraine’s State Emergency Service. It said that the hit had involved an Iskander-K cruise missile and an aerial bomb.

Ukraine’s air force also said it had shot down 14 Russian drones overnight, including over the Kyiv region.

Meanwhile, fighting continued in Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops have been deployed since Aug. 6 in a bid to divert the Kremlin’s military focus away from the front line in Ukraine.

Kyiv:

Ukraine now controls 74 settlements in Russia’s Kursk border region, the country’s president Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday.

The governor of the Kursk region, where Ukraine is mounting a week-long incursion, previously said Monday that Ukraine controls 28 settlements.

“There are 74 settlements under the control of Ukraine,” Zelensky said in his evening address.

The president said that “despite difficult, intense fighting, the advance of our forces in the Kursk region continues.”

He posted footage showing him holding a video call with military chief Oleksandr Syrsky.

Syrsky tells him: “As of today, our troops have advanced in some areas by 1 to 3 kilometres.”

In the last day, Ukraine has taken “over 40 square kilometres of territory”, Syrsky adds, after saying Monday that the troops hold around 1,000 square kilometres of Russian territory.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Ukraine’s top military commander says his forces now control 1,000 square km of Russia’s neighbouring Kursk region – the first time a Ukrainian military official has publicly commented on the gains of the lightning incursion that has embarrassed the Kremlin.

General Oleksandr Syrskyi made the statement in a video posted Monday (August 12, 2024) to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Telegram channel. In the video, he briefed the president on the front-line situation.

“The troops are fulfilling their tasks. Fighting continues actually along the entire front line. The situation is under our control,” Mr. Syrskyi said.

Russian forces are still scrambling to respond to the surprise Ukrainian attack after almost a week of fierce fighting.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the incursion, which has caused more than 100,000 civilians to flee, is an attempt by Kyiv to stop Moscow’s offensive in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region and gain leverage in possible future peace talks.

Mr. Zelenskyy confirmed for the first time that the Ukrainian military is inside the Kursk region. On Telegram, he praised his country’s soldiers and commanders “for their steadfastness and decisive actions.” He did not elaborate.

The Ukrainian operation is under tight secrecy, and its goals remain unclear. The stunning manoeuvre that caught the Kremlin’s forces off guard counters Russia’s unrelenting effort in recent months to punch through Ukrainian defences at selected points along the front line in eastern Ukraine.

Speaking Monday (August 12, 2024) at a meeting with top security and defence officials, Mr. Putin said the attack that began on August 6, 2024, appeared to reflect Kyiv’s attempt to achieve a better negotiating position in possible future talks to end the war. He insisted Moscow’s army would prevail.

Mr. Putin said Ukraine may have hoped the attack would cause public unrest in Russia, but that it has failed to do so, and he claimed the number of volunteers to join the Russian military has increased because of the assault. He said Russian forces will carry on with their offensive in eastern Ukraine regardless.

“It’s obvious that the enemy will keep trying to destabilise the situation in the border zone to try to destabilise the domestic political situation in our country,” Mr. Putin said. Russia’s main task is to “drive the enemy out of our territories and, together with the border service, to ensure reliable cover of the state border.”

Acting Kursk Governor Alexei Smirnov reported to Mr. Putin that Ukrainian forces had pushed 12km into the Kursk region across a 40km front and currently control 28 Russian settlements.

Mr. 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.

“Tracking down all the Ukrainian units that are roaming the region and creating diversions is difficult,” Mr. Smirnov said, noting that some are using fake Russian IDs.

The governor of the Belgorod region adjacent to Kursk also announced the evacuation of people from a district near the Ukrainian border.

Mr. Zelenskyy said the territory now controlled by Ukrainian forces was used to strike Ukraine’s Sumy region many times, adding that it is “absolutely fair to destroy Russian terrorists where they are.” “Russia brought war to others. Now it is coming home,” he said in a video posted on Telegram.

Russia has seen previous incursions into its territory during the nearly 2 1/2-year war, but the foray into the Kursk region marked the largest attack on its soil since World War II, constituting a milestone in the hostilities. It was also the first time the Ukrainian army has spearheaded an incursion rather than pro-Ukraine Russian fighters.

The advance delivered a blow to Mr. Putin’s efforts to pretend that life in Russia has been largely unaffected by the war. State propaganda tried to play down the attack, emphasising the authorities’ efforts to help residents of the region and seeking to distract attention from the military’s failure to prepare for the attack and quickly repel it.

Kursk residents recorded videos lamenting that they had to flee the border area, leaving behind their belongings, and pleading with Mr. Putin for help. But Russia’s state-controlled media kept a tight lid on any expression of discontent.

Retired General Andrei Gurulev, a member of the lower house of the Russian parliament, criticised the military for failing to protect the border.

“Regrettably, the group of forces protecting the border didn’t have its own intelligence assets,” he said on his messaging app channel. “No one likes to see the truth in reports, everybody just wants to hear that all is good.”

The combat inside Russia rekindled questions about whether Ukraine was using weaponry supplied by NATO members. Some Western countries have balked at allowing Ukraine to use their military aid to hit Russian soil, fearing it would fuel an escalation that might drag Russia and NATO into war.

Though it’s not clear what weapons Ukraine is using across the border, Russian media widely reported that American Bradley and German Marder armoured infantry vehicles were there. The claim could not be independently verified. Ukraine has already used U.S. weapons to strike inside Russia.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said in an interview published Monday (August 12, 2024) that the weapons provided by his country “cannot be used to attack Russia on its territory.”

Meanwhile, German Defence Ministry spokesperson Arne Collatz said Monday (August 12, 2024) that legal experts agree that “international law provides for a state that is defending itself also to defend itself on the territory of the attacker. That is clear from our point of view, too.”

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Monday (August 12, 2024) that reinforcements sent to the area backed by air forces and artillery had fended off seven attacks by Ukrainian units near Martynovka, Borki and Korenevo during the previous 24 hours.

The ministry said Russian forces also blocked an attempt by Ukrainian mobile groups to forge deep into Russian territory near Kauchuk.

Pasi Paroinen, an analyst with the Finland-based Black Bird Group open-source intelligence agency, which monitors the war, said the toughest phase of Ukraine’s incursion is likely to begin now as Russian reserves enter the fray.

Ukraine’s top commander said on Monday Kyiv controlled around 1,000 square kilometres of Russia’s Kursk region, his first public comments since Ukraine launched its biggest cross-border attack in almost 2-1/2 years of full-scale war.

With Russia still struggling to repel the incursion seven days after it began, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy published a video clip of Oleksandr Syrskyi, the head of his armed forces, delivering a report on the fighting.

“We continue to conduct an offensive operation in the Kursk region. Currently, we control about 1,000 square kilometres of the territory of the Russian Federation,” he said.

Zelensky said the meeting of top-level officials had ordered the preparation of a “humanitarian plan” for the area.

Russia’s acting governor of Kursk region, Alexei Smirnov, said Ukraine controlled 28 settlements, and the incursion was about 12 km deep and 40 km wide.

In a statement, the Ukrainian leader said the defence ministry and diplomats has been ordered to present a list of “necessary actions” needed to secure permission from Kyiv’s Western allies to use long-range weapons for strikes on Russia.

Defence Minister Rustem Umerov urged Paris earlier on Monday to lift the ban on Western weapons strikes on military targets in Russia during a call with French counterpart Sebastien Lecornu, the Ukrainian readout said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

More than 76,000 people have been evacuated from areas bordering Ukraine in Russia’s Kursk region, the local emergency ministry was quoted by the Tass news agency as saying on Saturday, following Ukraine’s incursion into the region this week.

Russia is fighting intense battles against thousands of Ukrainian troops as deep as 20 km (12 miles) inside the Kursk region after Ukraine’s biggest attack on Russian sovereign territory since the start of the war in 2022.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)