““Thousands” of military personnel are taking part in the ongoing Ukrainian incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, a senior Ukrainian official said, while Moscow said it had now “halted” the advance deeper into the territory of Kiev’s units. At the same time, however, there are reports that Ukrainians entered the towns of Martynovka and Gordeevka.

In a statement, the Russian Ministry of Defense said it prevented “attempts to penetrate” Russian defense lines by Ukrainian “armored” units near the communities of Talpino, Zhuravli and Obsi Kalodez, about thirty kilometers in a straight line from Russia’s border with Ukraine .

The ministry explained that raids by Ukrainian forces were thwarted by aircraft, drone and artillery bombardments, as well as the deployment of reserves of the “northern” formation, which operates in the Ukrainian region of Kharkiv (north-east).

The Russian military also said it hit Ukrainian troops with rockets and artillery near the communities of Sunja, Kareneva, Staragia Sarochitsa and Borki, and blocked an advance on Bielovsky, further east.

After months of retreat on the eastern front, Ukrainian troops on Tuesday launched an unprecedented large-scale incursion into Russia’s border region of Kursk, where they have seized, analysts say, several communities.

“The purpose is to overextend the enemy’s positions, to inflict maximum losses on him, to destabilize the situation in Russia (…) and to transfer the war to Russian territory,” a Ukrainian official told AFP last Saturday night. on condition of anonymity.

He assured that “thousands” of Ukrainian military personnel are participating in this operation.

The governor of Kursk, Alexei Smirnov, acknowledged yesterday that the situation remains “difficult”, after a week of fighting.

For his part, Ramzan Kadyrov, who rules in Chechnya, said yesterday that a unit of Chechen fighters, considered among the most barbaric and hardened in the entire country, had taken action in the Kursk region.

AFP journalists saw dozens of Ukrainian armored vehicles yesterday on the streets of the Ukrainian region of Sumy (north), which neighbors Kursk.

The vehicles, of various types, carry a white triangle, apparently used to identify the forces taking part in the attack.

After days of silence on the operation, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last Saturday night spoke publicly for the first time in his speech on it, saying that Kiev seeks to “transfer the war to the territory of the aggressor”.

Moscow sent reinforcements and imposed an “anti-terrorist” operation in three regions bordering Ukraine, including Kursk.

Last Saturday, he announced that he hastily evacuated over 76,000 people from the area at risk due to the invasion to “safe locations”. Ukraine, for its part, ordered the hasty evacuation of at least 20,000 civilians from the Sumy region.

In Ukraine, a fire broke out last night in a cooling tower of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, which is under the control of the Russian armed forces. The two warring sides blamed each other for the incident. The International Atomic Energy Agency said for its part that it had been informed that “there is no impact on nuclear safety”.

At the same time, he once again criticized the “irresponsible attacks”, which “increase the risk of a nuclear accident”.

The head of the authorities that Russia has placed in Zaporizhia, Vladimir Rogov, assured early today that the fire in the cooling tower of the reactors was “completely extinguished”.

Russian troops invaded Ukrainian territory in February 2022 and have been on the offensive ever since, having seized large swathes of the eastern and southern parts of the country and pounding Ukrainian cities daily with artillery, missiles and drones.

According to the Ukrainian official who spoke to AFP, the Ukrainian invasion was initially intended to divert Russian forces from Ukraine’s Kharkiv region and Donbass (eastern Ukraine), to ease pressure on forces trying to halt the Russian advance. , as Russian units have superior weapons and numerical advantage there.

But, at least for now, the goal of changing the situation on the eastern front has not been achieved, he admitted.

“Their pressure on the eastern front continues, they have not withdrawn their troops from this zone”, although “the intensity” of the Russian attacks “has decreased a little”.

But the invasion “caught the Russians asleep” and “really boosted our morale, the Ukrainian army, the state and society,” after two and a half years of war, he continued.

Sooner or later Russia will “stop” the advance of Ukrainian units in the Kursk region, but if after some time “they have not retaken these territories, they may be used for political purposes”, for example if peace negotiations are held, he continued.

He also said Moscow was preparing a massive missile strike against “decision-making centers” in retaliation for the Ukrainian invasion.

Ukraine’s Western allies had been informed in advance, he also said.

Given that “Western weaponry is actively used” in the operation, “our Western partners were indirectly involved in its planning,” he also said.

He assured that the Ukrainian troops involved are complying with international humanitarian law and Kiev does not intend to annex the zones it has seized so far.