- Russia bombs a supermarket in Donbass - fighting in Kursk
After a surprise attack by Ukraine in the Russian border region of Kursk and mass drone strikes against other areas, Moscow's troops bombed a supermarket in broad daylight in the Donbass. At least 14 people were killed and about 40 injured in the rocket attack on the eastern Ukrainian city of Kostyantynivka, according to official figures. "A strike by Russian terrorists on an ordinary supermarket and a post office. People are trapped under the rubble," President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram. This attack on another civilian object is a new heavy blow for the country that has been marked by almost two and a half years of Russian invasion.
Regarding Ukraine's push into the Russian border region of Kursk, Zelenskyy had said the night before that the results were good and that Moscow was now experiencing what war meant. "Russia brought the war to our land and should feel what it has done," he said. Russian authorities then reported a large-scale Ukrainian drone attack on the region of Lipetsk south of Moscow.
Fighting continues in the Kursk region
Russia deployed additional troops and equipment to the Kursk region, where hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers had entered on Tuesday. Russian military bloggers confirmed that a military column east of the city of Rylsk with many Russian soldiers was hit by Ukrainian artillery. Unverified videos on social media showed destroyed trucks and lifeless bodies in uniform.
Pro-Kremlin media reported that about 120 Russian soldiers had been killed before their planned combat deployment. There was no official information on this. However, the FSB arrested a man who had taken pictures of the destroyed column and the bodies.
The Russian Defense Ministry claimed that Ukrainian attempts to penetrate deep into the Kursk region had been repelled by aircraft and artillery. However, Russian military bloggers called for the truth about the situation to be told. The Ukrainian troops had entrenched themselves at several positions, it was said.
Emergency situation also in the Lipetsk region
In the Kursk region, the authorities raised the emergency situation to a national emergency level. This provides more personnel and resources. More than 50 injured were taken to hospitals in the Kursk region alone. Thousands had to seek safety due to the Ukrainian advance.
After massive drone strikes on the Lipetsk region, an emergency situation was also declared there. There were massive explosions at a munitions depot at a military airport near the city of Lipetsk, about 300 kilometers north of the Ukrainian-Russian border. Air raid sirens were also sounded in the neighboring regions of Kursk, Bryansk, Belgorod, and Voronezh, as well as on the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014. More than 70 drones were intercepted, Russian authorities said.
Four villages around the Lipetsk military airport were to be evacuated. In Lipetsk and the surrounding area, public transport was stopped, and there were power outages due to damage to an energy facility. Nine people were injured as a result of the attacks. The military airport is about 280 kilometers by air from the Ukrainian border.
Ukraine is not providing details about the fighting.
The Ukrainian General Staff has yet to provide any information on fighting within Russian territory. In its morning report on Facebook, it only mentioned Russian air and artillery attacks on the border between the northeastern Ukrainian regions of Chernihiv and Sumy. More than half a dozen settlements, mainly in the border area with Russia, were affected.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian military observers from the DeepState channel marked an area of about 140 square kilometers in the Kursk region with three villages as under Ukrainian control. The city of Sujaga is reportedly not under Ukrainian control. Due to an apparent information blackout from the Ukrainian side, there are hardly any details about the events. However, an advisor to President Zelensky's office, Mykhailo Podolyak, reminded of international reactions that give Ukraine the right to attack Russian territory in its defensive struggle against the war.
Advisor in Kyiv: Russia is a legitimate target
"The impossible has become possible, and the mythical Russian brutality and excess have now turned against Russia itself," Podolyak said of the situation in Kursk. A large part of the international community now considers Russia a legitimate target for any operations and weapons. The Ukraine is not only fighting against the occupying army but also successfully against historically strong pro-Russian sympathies and fears in the West, he said.
Ukraine repeatedly emphasizes that Russia is a defeatable enemy. It wants to show with this first incursion of a foreign army since the end of World War II that the country is vulnerable. Meanwhile, Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin met with representatives of the national security council to discuss further steps in the fight against what he called terrorism. Details were not immediately known.
Russia began its war of aggression against Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Particularly in the border regions, Russians also feel the consequences of the war. The damage is usually not comparable to the devastating destruction and the many dead and injured on the Ukrainian side due to Russian attacks.
The Ukrainian troops may have used aircraft to support their advance in the Kursk region, as Russian military bloggers reported a hit on a Russian military column with many soldiers, which was accompanied by destroyed trucks and lifeless bodies. Despite Moscow's claims of repelling Ukrainian attempts to penetrate the Kursk region with aircraft and artillery, the Ukrainian General Staff has provided no details about their actions within Russian territory.
