Russian President Vladimir Putin. File
| Photo Credit: AP

“Russian plans to create a ‘buffer zone’ in Sumy and Kharkiv regions in the north and northeast, to take the city of Pokrovsk and to capture all of Donetsk region had failed,” Commander in Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi said. Photo: Ukrainian Presidential Press Service Handout via Reuters

A new school textbook that likens Russia’s war in Ukraine to the Soviet struggle against the Nazis and says Russia was “forced” to send troops into Ukraine was presented in Moscow on Monday.

President Vladimir Putin casts the war, which Moscow officially calls a “Special Military Operation”, as a difficult but necessary fight against a Western- and NATO-backed Ukraine. He says it is part of a wider existential battle against a decadent West trying to weaken and dismember Russia.

For their part, Ukraine and its Western allies say Russia is waging a brutal and unprovoked war, merely to gain territory.

The three-volume “Military History of Russia” was edited by Vladimir Medinsky, an aide to Putin who headed a delegation that held unsuccessful peace talks with Ukraine in 2022, in the early months of the war, and has already co-authored Russia’s main history textbook.

The third volume, likely to be dismissed by Ukraine’s leadership as propaganda, is designed to be taught to children aged 15 and older.

It explains why the Kremlin believes the war started and how it is being fought, highlights what it regards as incidences of battlefield heroism, and describes how the modern Russian army is sometimes employs techniques used by the Soviet army during World War Two.

In a chapter entitled “Professionalism, indomitability and courage: Russian troops in the Special Military Operation”, the book tells schoolchildren that Russia was “forced” to send its troops into Ukraine in 2022.

It says the West had for years ignored Russia’s security concerns – a reference to the eastward expansion of the NATO military alliance, and to what the book described as the Western-backed toppling of a Russia-friendly Ukrainian president in 2014, which had turned Ukraine into an “aggressive anti-Russian bridgehead”.

NATO and Ukraine deny ever posing a threat to Russia.

Speaking at a TASS news conference to discuss the new book, Ivan Basik, a military historian affiliated with the Russian army, said Western and Ukrainian actions had made the war “inevitable”.

“The most important task was to explain to the younger generation, to schoolchildren, the forced nature of the special military operation carried out by the Russian Federation,” he said.

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

An explosion is seen in the sky over the city during a Russian drone and missile strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine September 30, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The Ukrainian air force said on Friday (October 4, 2024) that Russia attacked critical infrastructure in the country with 19 drones overnight.

Air defences shot down nine drones, with seven more likely impacted by electronic jamming, it said in a statement, without saying what happened to the other three.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said an apartment building was damaged in the capital but reported no casualties. “The fire was promptly extinguished there,” he added.

“The attack also damaged a business administrative building in the central region of Kirovohrad, causing light injuries to one of the employees,” Governor Andriy Raykovych said.

Russian forces also hit critical infrastructure, utility facilities and 35 private residences in the past day in the southern Kherson region, according to Governor Oleksandr Prokudin. “Various attacks there killed one and injured four more,” he said.

At least seven explosions rang out on August 26 morning over the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, AFP journalists heard, amid a nationwide alert warning against Russian aerial attacks. File.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday (August 26, 2024) condemned Russia’s overnight and early morning barrage on his country as “vile” and said it involved over 100 missiles of various types and about 100 “Shahed” drones.

Ukraine’s leader said there were deaths and dozens of injuries and that the attack caused a lot of damage to Ukraine’s energy sector.

“Like most previous Russian strikes, this one was just as vile, targeting critical civilian infrastructure. Most of our regions — from the Kharkiv region and Kyiv to Odesa and our western regions,” Mr. Zelenskyy said.

The barrage began around midnight and continued after daybreak in what appeared to be Russia’s biggest attack against Ukraine in weeks.

Russian forces fired drones, cruise missiles and hypersonic ballistic Kinzhal missiles at 15 Ukrainian regions — more than half the country, Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Monday (August 26, 2024) morning.

“The energy infrastructure has once again become the target of Russian terrorists. Unfortunately, there is damage in a number of regions,” Mr. Shmyhal said, adding that Ukraine’s state-owned power grid operator, Ukrenergo, has been forced to implement emergency power cuts to stabilize the system.

He called on Ukraine’s allies to provide Kyiv with long-range weapons and permission to use them on targets inside Russia.

“In order to stop the barbaric shelling of Ukrainian cities, it is necessary to destroy the place from which the Russian missiles are launched,” Shmyhal said. “We count on the support of our allies and will definitely make Russia pay.”

According to Ukraine’s air force, there were multiple groups of Russian drones moving toward eastern, northern, southern, and central regions of Ukraine, followed by multiple cruise and ballistic missiles.

Ihor Polishchuk, mayor of Ukraine’s western city of Lutsk, said a multi-story residential building and an unspecified infrastructure object were hit and one person was killed.

Another person was killed in the central Dnipropetrovsk region, where the attack sparked multiple fires, regional head Serhii Lysak said.

One person was also killed in the southeastern, partially occupied region of Zaporizhzhia, regional head Ivan Fedorov said.

Ukraine’s private energy company DTEK introduced emergency blackouts, saying in an online statement that “energy workers throughout the country work 24/7 to restore light in the homes of Ukrainians.” In neighboring Poland, the military said Polish and NATO air defenses were activated in the eastern part of the country as a result of the attack.

Ukrainian servicemen operate a Soviet-made T-72 tank in the Sumy region, near the border with Russia, on August 12, 2024, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Russia launched 38 attack drones and two Iskander-M ballistic missiles at Ukraine overnight, Ukraine’s air force said on Tuesday (August 13, 2024).

Thirty of the drones were destroyed over several Ukrainian regions, the air force said on the Telegram messaging app. It was not clear what happened to the air weapons that were not destroyed.

As of 0420 GMT, all of Ukraine was under new air raid alerts with the threat of fresh air attacks, the air force added in a separate Telegram statement.

Ukrainian ground troops and mechanized forces crossed the international border, advancing over 30 kilometres into Russian territory in one of the most significant developments in the ongoing war between the two countries. The Ukrainian troops, estimated to be over 1,000, moved from the Sumy Oblast region of north-east Ukraine and have taken over Kursk Oblast of Russia.

Ukraine’s incursion caught Russia off-guard, which is now scrambling troops to stop the advance. Kyiv conducted intense artillery and drone attacks along with the movement of mechanized troops into enemy territory.

The Institute for Study of War (ISW), a non-profit, geolocated the positions of Ukrainian troops through open-source videos and pictures of the operation and marked the territories that have witnessed Ukrainian advance. The blue region indicates the areas where Ukrainians have entered.

Russia has scrambled its troops to stop the further incursion of Ukrainians. The objective of the Ukrainian operation is unclear, but ever since the war began in February 2022, Kyiv’s operation appears to be the biggest challenge Putin’s Russia has faced. 

Ukraine has been largely silent on the offensive. Meanwhile, Russia has announced a “federal emergency” and has scrambled troops to defend the area.

Geolocating Ukrainian Advance

ISW said the advance of the Ukrainian mechanized troops comprising tanks, infantry and armoured vehicles almost 35 km into Russia was “rapid”, but ISW said it does not appear that the Ukrainians most certainly “do not control that area”. 

Russian conscripts, the FSB border guards and elements of Chechen “Akhmat” units, a motorized unit operating in the Chechen Republic and fighting for Russia, are operating in the Kursk region and built field fortifications along the border. They were breached by the Ukrainian troops. Based on the information accessed by ISW, as of August 8, Ukrainian troops are located in Sverdlikovo, Sudhza, Malaya and Lyubimovka. 

Vladimir Putin has called the incursion a “large-scale provocation” by Kyiv, and Russia’s top general has vowed to crush it. Meanwhile, a Chechen Akhmat unit official said, “The situation is not irreversible. Nothing supernatural happened, yes, our people died, that’s a fact. The enemy has entered several settlements,” said General Apti Alaudinov, a close ally of Chechen dictator Ramzan Kadyrov and commander of Akhmat special forces.

Russian military bloggers claim that the Ukrainian troops are advancing in small units from Russia’s rear and bypassing their fortifications before engaging Russian forces and then withdrawing from the engagements without attempting to consolidate control over their furthest advances.

The new frontline in Russia is far from other areas where intense fighting has taken place since the war began. Significant fighting took place in eastern Ukraine, a major chunk of which is claimed to be under Russian control. In the east, Donetsk, Luhansk and Horlivka had been under Russian control before the war began two years ago. The Russian troops have advanced further west from these regions and control a frontline which runs northeast to south of Ukraine. 

According to the ISW’s map, the red line indicates the Russian advance in Ukraine and the black dotted lines toward Russian control of Ukrainian territory before the war began.

Ukrainian drones targeted residential buildings in the border regions of Kursk, Voronezh and Belgorod. Combatants from Ukraine have made several brief incursions into Russia since the beginning of the conflict in February 2022.

Russia Scrambles Troops

Russian military experts have slammed officials for not detecting the incursions in the first place. The Ukrainian offensive has entered its third day. Russia initially scrambled air and artillery units to repel the attacks but failed to stop the advance. 

Russia’s defence ministry said it is sending columns of military hardware, including rocket launchers, artillery, tanks and heavy trucks to reinforce its defences in the area. 

Russia carried out artillery strikes on a supermarket in eastern Ukraine’s Kostyantynivka. The attack is Russia’s response to the Ukrainian advance. The shelling killed ten people and wounded 35. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has vowed to take revenge for the attack.

“Russia will be held accountable for this terror, and we will do our best to ensure that the world continues to stand with Ukraine in supporting our defense and saving the lives of our people,” Zelensky said on X.

Kostyantynivka, Donetsk region. Russian terrorists hit an ordinary supermarket and a post office. There are people under the rubble. A rescue operation is underway, and everything will be done to save them.

At the moment, it’s known that four people have been killed. My… pic.twitter.com/Sd9vrGTHTc

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) August 9, 2024

Kostyantynivka has witnessed attacks in the past and Russian shelling is a usual occurrence. 

Incursion To Gain Leverage?

Kharkiv in Ukraine has been a major flashpoint between the troops and has witnessed intense battles in the past. In May, Russia launched a new offensive in the region, taking significant territory in Kharkiv. The attacks saw Russia dropping 1,000 kg guided bombs on a hardware store in which 16 were killed.

Last year, Ukrainian troops launched a major counteroffensive to reclaim Kharkiv, which almost reached the border of Russia. Kharkiv has party occupied by Russia since the war began on February 24, 2022. 

The Russian-controlled territory lies very close to the international border and is several kilometres north of Kharkiv city, Ukraine’s second-largest city. Ukraine’s ongoing incursion in Kursk could be a way to gain leverage on the negotiation table for a truce in areas by forcing the enemy to pull troops from other areas to reinforce the frontline. The Ukrainian objective remains unclear. 

US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Washington was “reaching out to our Ukrainian counterparts to get a little better understanding”. He added “Nothing has changed about our policy” and Ukraine can use US-supplied weapons only “to target imminent threats just across the border”.

US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said of the Kremlin: “It is a little bit rich, them calling it a provocation, given Russia violated Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.”

A serviceman walks down a street, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, near the frontline town of Chasiv Yar in Donetsk region, Ukraine. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Russia said on Wednesday its forces had captured a district in the key hilltop town of Chasiv Yar near Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, where Moscow has been pressing for months.

The town, in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, has strategic importance and its capture could allow Russia to mount further offensives across the region.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said in a daily briefing that its troops had “liberated the ‘Novy’ district of Chasiv Yar”, a neighbourhood on the eastern edge of the town.

Russia’s capture of the area was also reported by Ukraine’s DeepState Telegram channel, which has links to Kyiv’s Army.

It said the district had been flattened by Russian bombardments, and that withdrawing was “a logical, albeit difficult decision.”

It was unclear if Russia was claiming that its forces had crossed a canal that runs through the eastern part of the town, a natural barrier that has aided Ukraine’s defence.

Chasiv Yar lies around 10 km west of Bakhmut, which Russian forces captured last year after months of artillery strikes and urban combat destroyed the city.

Foreign journalists report from an observation point while smoke rises after a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Friday, May 17, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

Russian forces were pressing ahead on Friday with their offensive in north-east Ukraine as President Vladimir Putin said there were no current plans to occupy Kharkiv city, the regional capital.

On a trip to China, Mr. Putin said the assault was direct retaliation for Ukrainian shelling of Russia’s border regions and that Moscow was trying to create a “security zone”.

“This is their fault because they have shelled and continue to shell residential neighbourhoods in border areas,” Mr. Putin told reporters, adding there was no intention at this stage to take Kharkiv with its population of over one million about 40 km from the front lines.

Moscow launched the surprise offensive into Ukraine’s north east on May 10, sending thousands of troops across the border and unleashing artillery fire on several settlements, including the almost deserted town of Vovchansk.

Resisting onslaught

Oleg Synegubov, Governor of the Kharkiv region, said Russian forces were trying to surround Vovchansk, which had a pre-war population of around 18,000, and that Ukraine’s forces were “resisting” the Russian onslaught. “The enemy has actually started to destroy the city. It is not just dangerous to be there, but impossible,” Mr. Synegubov said in a briefing.

But he warned Russia was also gaining ground near Lukyantsi, a village much further west that Kyiv pulled back from earlier this week amid heavy fire.