Russia reinforces Kursk region, videos show Ukrainian presence, evidence of attack

Russia moved extra tanks, artillery and rocket systems to its southern Kursk region on Friday as it battled a shock incursion by Ukraine’s military, while Ukrainian forces posted a video purporting to show them in control of a town near the border.
In new evidence of the damage inflicted in the Ukrainian counter-offensive, video posted on social media and verified by Reuters showed a convoy of about 15 burnt-out Russian military trucks spaced out along a highway in the Kursk region.
Some contained dead bodies.
The acting governor of Kursk region, Alexei Smirnov, said drone debris had fallen on a power substation near Kurchatov, site of one of Russia’s largest nuclear power stations with four reactors. Power to the area was cut for a time.
The head of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency urged both sides to show restraint in view of the proximity of the conflict to the station, 60 km (35 miles) from the border.
Russian diplomats in Vienna told the IAEA that fragments, possibly from downed missiles, had been found, though there was no evidence of an attack on the station.
Ukrainian forces broke across the border on Tuesday in a thrust that caught the Russian military by surprise after months of gradual advances in eastern Ukraine by Moscow’s forces.
Politicians and the military are referring to a Ukrainian “invasion,” nearly two and a half years after Russia launched its own full-scale invasion of its neighbor.
Authorities declared a federal state of emergency in Kursk.
Two days after Military Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov reported to President Vladimir Putin that the advance had been halted, Russia’s defense ministry said its forces “continue to repel an attempted invasion by the Armed Forces of Ukraine into the territory of the Russian Federation.”
Interfax news agency quoted the ministry as saying that Russia was sending in columns of reinforcements with Grad multiple-launch rocket systems, artillery and tanks.
The video purporting to show Ukrainian forces in control of a gas measuring facility run by Russian concern Gazprom in the town of Sudzha was Ukraine’s first pictorial acknowledgement of its troops’ advance into Kursk region.
“The town is controlled by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the town is calm, all buildings are intact,” a soldier in the video said, adding that the “strategic Gazprom facility” was under the control of a Ukrainian battalion.
Reuters could not verify the video and the Ukrainian military’s General Staff made no comment.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has maintained a strict silence on the operation, though he dropped some clear hints on Thursday, without referring to Kursk.
He praised his army’s ability “to surprise.” And in his nightly video address, he thanked army units who had taken Russian servicemen prisoner, to be used in later negotiations.
“This is extremely important and has been particularly effective over the past three days,” he said.
Ben Barry, land warfare analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said that while its wider strategic goals remained unclear, Ukraine had exposed Russian shortcomings and overturned the conventional wisdom on the war that neither side could advance without heavy losses.
“They clearly have achieved a degree of surprise which suggests that Russia’s ability to do intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance is inadequate,” he said in a phone interview.
A Ukrainian Telegram channel that posted the video of the destroyed Russian trucks said they had been hit by a US-supplied HIMARS rocket system.
Russian bloggers also blamed a HIMARS strike, and one said whoever had given the order for military vehicles to move in exposed columns was an “asshole” who should be shot.
Reuters was not able to establish how the vehicles were destroyed.
The United States announced a new $125 million package of aid for Ukraine, including Stinger missiles, artillery ammunition, and anti-armor systems. Zelensky expressed thanks, saying the equipment was “vital for our forces to counter Russian assaults.”
Russia’s defense ministry released its own video which it said showed a drone destroying a Ukrainian tank and howitzer near Sudzha. Reuters was able to verify the location.
The ministry said that in the previous 24 hours, Russian troops, air strikes and artillery had “suppressed raid attempts by enemy units deep into Russian territory in the Kursk direction.”
It said that Ukraine had lost up to 945 soldiers and 102 armored vehicles in total during the Kursk fighting, without mentioning any losses on the Russian side.
Reuters could not verify the battlefield accounts. On Wednesday, Gerasimov had said the Ukrainian attack was mounted by up to 1,000 troops.
The Institute for the Study of War said in an overnight report that geolocated footage and Russian accounts indicated that Ukrainian forces had “continued rapid advances.”
There were unconfirmed reports from Russian sources of Ukrainians pushing as deep as 35 km (22 miles) from the border.
Rybar, a Russian military blog, said Ukrainian units had been entering village after village and staging ambushes against arriving Russian reinforcements.
The Russian rouble was down 2.5 percent against the dollar and traders said the Ukrainian attack on Kursk region was one of the factors behind the currency’s weakness.