Faced with Russian invasion for two and a half years and under pressure for months in eastern Ukraine, Ukrainian forces launched a surprise attack on August 6 in the Russian border region of Kursk, taking Moscow by surprise and seizing several hundred square kilometers and dozens of localities.
The Russian army announced on September 12 that it had regained ground by launching a counter-offensive in the region.
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“They have achieved some minor successes, but this success has now turned into a virtual encirclement for them,” Dmytrachkivsky said. “The Russians entered one locality. They started fighting for another locality, but that’s all.”
“Several thousand Russian civilians” in the controlled zone
The spokesman also said that “several thousand” Russian civilians were still in Ukrainian-controlled territory. “In some localities there are more than a hundred people,” in others “more than two hundred, more than five hundred,” he said.
These are mostly elderly people, but there are also children, Dmytrachkivsky said, adding that one woman gave birth to a “healthy” boy in the territory.
He also accused the Russian army of launching air strikes, including using gliding bombs, against the area controlled by Ukrainian troops, reporting at least “23 civilians killed” since the end of August. AFP is not able to confirm the veracity of this information.
The spokesman denied any mistreatment of civilians by Ukrainian military personnel.
“They receive water, food, bread, the military does not offend them,” he said, specifying that the shops and pharmacies were not functioning.
In a statement, the Russian army assured that it was on the offensive in some areas of the Kursk region, and was repelling Ukrainian attacks in others.
This Ukrainian incursion into Russian territory, the first by a foreign army since the Second World War, constitutes a snub for Vladimir Putin.
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