Russian forces have reportedly fired on their own armored vehicles close to major battles in the Kursk region, as Ukraine’s surprise incursion yields further gains into Russia.
Footage shared by Anton Gerashchenko, a former adviser to Ukraine’s interior ministry, and open-source intelligence accounts, purportedly shows a Russian Ka-52 attack helicopter attacking a column of Russian armored vehicles close to the Kursk border town of Sudzha.
The footage is grainy, appearing to show the targeting of two military vehicles, with Russian-language instructions flashing up. Newsweek could not independently verify the clip, and has reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry for comment via email.
Thousands of Ukrainian troops crossed over into Kursk more than a week ago, launching the most significant advance into Russian territory since the start of full-scale war nearly two-and-a-half years ago.
ANATOLIY ZHDANOV/Kommersant Photo/AFP via Getty Images
Moscow struggled to respond as Kyiv’s fighters quickly advanced, with the town of Sudzha one of the first targets.
Russia’s senior officials said its troops, under a “counterterrorism operation” led by the Russian federal security service, the FSB, have halted Ukrainian gains.
Yet Russia’s community of prominent military bloggers, often used as sources of information on the war not made public by the Kremlin, Western analysis and Kyiv officials, indicated continued Ukrainian progress in Kursk in recent days.
On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv was “advancing in the Kursk region, one to two kilometers in various areas since the beginning of the day.” That would mean Ukraine advanced just over a mile in the region in the space of a few hours.
A second Russian region, Belgorod, declared a state of emergency on Wednesday. Belgorod is also on the border with Ukraine, southeast of Kursk.
“The situation in the Kursk region remains difficult,” acting regional governor, Alexei Smirnov, said on Wednesday.
One Ukrainian soldier in the Sumy region overlooking Kursk told the BBC that, when Ukraine’s troops crossed over the border, “almost immediately they reached the western outskirts” of Sudzha.
It is not currently clear who controls Sudzha. A Chechen special forces commander, speaking to Russian state media on Wednesday, denied Ukraine had a grip on the town, saying “active fighting” was taking place but that Russian forces were inside Sudzha.
Ukrainian media showed a report that included video of a Ukrainian journalist in the center of Sudzha, indicating Kyiv controls “at least part of the settlement” and the surrounding areas, according to the U.S.-based think tank, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
Earlier today, multiple milbloggers shared onboard footage of a Russian Ka-52 attack helicopter destroying a Ukrainian convoy in Kursk with guided missile fire. Only one catch:
The convoy was Russian
The Ka-52 destroyed a pair of Russian transports in a friendly fire incident. pic.twitter.com/BgDkl0MUN9
— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) August 15, 2024
Kyiv officials have said the incursion into Russia is focused on self-defense, shielding Ukrainian territory from destructive strikes launched from Kursk.
“Ukraine is waging a defensive war, pushing Russian artillery to the necessary distance so that it cannot be used against civilians,” Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the head of Zelensky’s office, told Russian-language independent outlet Meduza on Wednesday.
Kyiv is working to cut off logistics routes that Moscow uses to supply its forces in Ukraine, Podolyak added, as well as “show the failure” of Russia’s leadership.
Ukraine is determined to “transfer the war to Russian territory,” the adviser said.
The next steps for Kyiv aren’t clear as seasoned Russian reinforcements arrive in Kursk.