Ukraine's Assault on Russian City of Kursk Takes Moscow by Surprise: 'They Do Not Want to Fight Us'
In the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war, a fresh onslaught directed by the Ukrainian army on a Russian city has led to the capture and death of many soldiers, according to Ukraine's military administration.
Oleksii Drozdenko, the head of the military administration in the northwest city of Sumy claimed that seeing the condition in which Russia had left the borders of its Kursk region, where the attack was launched, it was clear – "They do not want to fight us," The New York Post reported.
The Ukrainian attack on the Kursk region has been ongoing for the last 13 days and around 150 Russian soldiers are being captured every day, The New York Post reported. The assault started on August 6 and caught Russian soldiers in the area completely by surprise.
Drozdenko has shared with the media that Ukrainian soldiers have seized hundreds of Moscow troops and have suffered minimal casualties.
The attack was not only a surprise for the Russian soldiers but also for officials in Sumy, who had no idea that Ukrainian authorities were sending forces for an attack. Ukrainian soldiers made their way from Sumy to enter Kursk and launched attacks on the Russian army.
Ukraine authorities are considering the attack a major success because of the low number of deaths on their side, The New York Post reported. "On the first day of the operation, there were only 15 casualties," Drozdenko claimed.
"Sometimes there are more than 100 or 150 prisoners of war a day," Drozdenko shared, The Guardian reported. Drozdenko also highlighted in his statement, the lack of resistance shown by the Russian forces towards the onslaught on its soil.
As per experts, Ukraine has been successful in its attack on the Kursk region because Russia has not invested enough reinforcements in that area, The New York Post reported. Most of Russia's focus has been on the operations in Donbas and Donetsk.
According to military officials in Kyiv, the attack on Kursk borders is just one of the first steps in the combat plan against Moscow, devised by Ukraine. Ukraine authorities have released photos of the assault showing Kyiv trucks hauling off captured Moscow soldiers.
The ultimate goal of this combat plan remains a tight-lipped secret amongst the Ukraine officials. "We see only part of this operation, in the future we will see several stages," Drozdenko shared.
Russia has launched a counter-attack in response to the actions of Ukraine's forces in the Kursk region, The New York Post reported. Russian military allegedly launched cruise missiles and bombs in Suny on 17th August, which left two Ukrainian soldiers injured.
Ukrainian authorities have claimed that their military has blown up two strategically important bridges, both over the Seim River in Kursk, which have hampered Russia's advancements in the region, BBC reported. This is Ukraine's biggest attack on Russia, since the start of the war.
"Our operation in the Kursk region is still inflicting losses on the Russian army and the Russian state, their defense industry, and their economy," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky shared, BBC reported.
As per experts, if the claims made by Ukraine are true, then they are actively trying to dissuade any attempts from the enemy to rebuild their troops in Kursk, The New York Post reported.
Zelensky considers the occupation of Kursk a huge strategic win for his country as it allows their allies to help them more effectively. Zelensky hopes that control over 400 square miles of land in Kursk will encourage their allies to remove restrictions placed on aspects like weapon supply and allow them to come out retroactively to support Ukraine in this war with Russia.
"It is crucial that our partners remove barriers that hinder us from weakening Russian positions in the way this war demands," Zelensky said in a statement.