Kyiv hasn’t commented officially on the military action, but Ukrainian MP Oleksiy Goncharenko said: “Everything is according to plan.”
From: Politico BY KETRIN JOCHECOVÁ, JOSHUA POSANER, NETTE NÖSTLINGER AND JAN CIENSKI
Russia declared a state of emergency in the Kursk region late Wednesday as Ukrainian forces continued a cross-border attack there.
“To eliminate the consequences of enemy forces coming into the region, I took the decision to introduce a state of emergency in the Kursk region from Aug. 7,” the acting governor of the Kursk region, Alexei Smirnov, said in a post on Telegram Wednesday evening.
The Russian military said clashes with Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region have been occurring since early Tuesday, in an incursion that Russian President Vladimir Putin called “a large-scale provocation.”
Despite some international worries that the attack may provoke Russia, the European Union said that Kyiv was within its rights to fight on Russian territory.
“Ukraine is fighting a rightful defensive war based on international law. Ukraine has a right to defend itself. And this right to defend itself includes also hitting the enemy on his territory,” Peter Stano, a spokesperson for the Commission, told reporters on Thursday.
The White House will “reach out to the Ukrainian military to learn more about their objectives,” Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Wednesday, adding: “We are going to continue to stay focused on making sure they have what they need to defend themselves against Russia’s aggression.”
Surprise attack
The first reports of a Kyiv ground attack came from Smirnov, who wrote on Telegram about “attempted border breakthroughs” in the Sudzhansky and Korenevsky districts, and later claimed that Ukrainians had attacked Russian border force units at the settlements of Nikolayevo-Daryino and Oleshnya.
Ukraine has not officially commented on the military activity in Kursk, but Kyiv has announced a mandatory evacuation of 6,000 people in northeastern Ukrainian region of Sumy, just across the border from Kursk. While not mentioning Kursk, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late Wednesday: “It is important to continue destroying our enemy … And the more pressure is exerted on Russia … the closer peace will be.”
Voice of Ukraine 