The Russian Defense Ministry claimed on Sept. 17 that it had repelled Ukraine's new attempts to cross into Russia's Kursk Oblast west of the currently controlled territories.
Ukraine launched a cross-border incursion into Kursk Oblast in early August, reportedly seizing around 100 settlements and 1,300 square kilometers (500 square miles) of Russian territory. The Ukrainian positions in the region are now threatened by a Russian counterattack launched last week.
Commenting on Russia's counterattack, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that "everything was going according to our plan" and that Russia's "rapid" offensive had not yet achieved "serious" success in the area.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Ukraine attempted to attack in the direction of the villages of Veseloye and Medvezhye, about 25 kilometers west of the currently-held territories in Kursk Oblast.
Kyiv has not commented on these claims, which cannot be verified independently.
One of the objectives of Ukraine's incursion into Kursk Oblast was to force Russia to redeploy its forces from the front in Ukraine. Before the Kursk operation, the most intense Russian assaults were observed in Donetsk Oblast, primarily near Pokrovsk. While the Russian offensive on Pokrovsk has slowed down after the launch of the Kursk incursion, heavy fighting continues in other sectors of the front in Donetsk Oblast, including near Vuhledar.
Russia has also intensified its attacks on bordering Sumy Oblast, which the military considers to be a response to Kyiv's success in the Kursk operation.
In addition to pushing Russian troops away from the border, Ukraine has reportedly taken over 600 Russian captives and inflicted 6,000 casualties in Russia's region as of early September.
Dinara Khalilova
