Ukrainian TSN news program showed Ukrainian soldiers removing the Russian flag in the town of Sudzha in Kursk Oblast on Aug. 14, reporting from embattled Russia's region for the first time after Kyiv's incursion.
Ukraine's unprecedented operation, ongoing since last week, seems to have taken Russia by surprise, as Kyiv says its forces seized control of 74 settlements and over 1,000 square kilometers of land after they broke through the weakly defended border.
Nataliia Nahorna, a war reporter for 1+1 TV channel that is a part of Ukraine's united news program dubbed as TV Marathon, filmed a video against the backdrop of soldiers removing the Russian flag from a building.
"We are now in Sudzha at the historic moment when the Russian tricolor falls to the ground," she said. TSN also published photos of destroyed equipment in Russia's region.
The news came soon after Apti Alaudinov, the commander of the Chechen Akhmat unit fighting for Russia, claimed that Ukraine's Armed Forces do not control the town as of Aug. 14, Russian state-controlled news agency TASS wrote.
Sudzha is located less than 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the border with Ukraine, while the city of Kursk lies 85 kilometers (53 miles) to the northeast of Sudzha.
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Aug. 9 that Ukrainian troops reached the western outskirts of the town. Ukrainian soldiers posted video footage later, claiming to be in Sudzha.
Ukraine's Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Heorhii Tykhyi, said on Aug. 13 that the incursion aims to prevent Moscow from sending reinforcements to the front in Donetsk Oblast.
It is also designed to disrupt Russian logistics and halt cross-border attacks in lieu of Ukraine's long-range strikes with Western arms, which remain under unofficial restrictions from partners.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported, citing undisclosed U.S. officials, that Moscow is withdrawing at least some of its forces from Ukraine to counter Kyiv's incursion in Russia's Kursk Oblast.
Oleg Sukhov
