Russian officials have declared the situation in the Kursk region a “federal level” emergency, four days after hundreds of Ukrainian troops poured over the border in what appears to be Kyiv’s biggest attack on Russian soil since the war began.
Meanwhile, a Russian plane-launched missile struck a Ukrainian shopping centre in the middle of the day, killing at least 14 people and wounding 44 others, authorities said.
The shopping centre in Kostiantynivka, in the eastern Donetsk region, is located in the town’s residential area. Thick black smoke rose above it after the strike.
Kostyantynivka, Donetsk region. Russian terrorists hit an ordinary supermarket and a post office. There are people under the rubble. A rescue operation is underway, and everything will be done to save them.
At the moment, it’s known that four people have been killed. My… pic.twitter.com/Sd9vrGTHTc— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) August 9, 2024
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Donetsk regional head Vadym Filashkin said in a Telegram post: “This is another targeted attack on a crowded place, another act of terror by the Russians.”
It was the second major strike on the town in almost a year.
Last September, a Russian missile hit an outdoor market there, killing 17.
July saw the heaviest civilian casualties in Ukraine since October 2022, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said on Friday.
Conflict-related violence killed at least 219 civilians and injured 1,018 in July, the mission said.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said that reinforcements were on their way to the Kursk region to counter Ukraine’s daring raid.
Russia is deploying multiple rocket launchers, towed artillery guns, tanks transported on trailers and heavy tracked vehicles, the RIA-Novosti news agency said, citing the Defence Ministry.
“The operational situation in the Kursk region remains difficult,” Kursk acting governor Alexei Smirnov said on Telegram.
The Russian Defence Ministry reported fighting in the western outskirts of Sudzha, about 10 kilometres (six miles) from the border.
The town has an important pipeline transit hub for Russian natural gas.
Social services and civic associations are providing assistance to people forced to flee their homes by the fighting, he said. The last Russian figure for evacuations in Kursk was 3,000.
Little reliable information about the surprise Ukrainian operation has emerged, and its strategic aims are unclear.
Ukrainian officials have refused to comment specifically about the incursion, which is taking place about 320 miles south-west of Moscow.
But a top adviser to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday that border region attacks will cause Russia to “start to realise that the war is slowly creeping inside of Russian territory”.
Myhailo Podolyak also suggested that the operation would improve Kyiv’s hand in the event of negotiations with Moscow.
Asked about Ukraine’s incursion, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said on Friday the United States was “in touch with our Ukrainian counterparts” but that he would not comment until “those conversations are complete”.
“There’s been no changes in our policy approaches,” Mr Kirby said when asked if there had been a change in US policy on use of weapons.
“They’re using it in an area where we had said before that they could use US weapons for cross-border strikes. The end goal here is to help Ukraine defend itself.”
The assault came as the Ukrainian army toils to hold at bay an intense Russian push at places on the front line in eastern Ukraine, especially in the Donetsk region.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has made clear he wants to capture the parts of Donetsk that the Kremlin’s forces do not already occupy.
Russia declares federal level emergencies when there are more than 500 victims or damage exceeds 500 million roubles (about £4.7 million).
The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, says Ukrainian forces have pressed on with their “rapid advances” deeper into the Kursk region, reportedly going up to 20 miles beyond the border.
“The lack of a coherent Russian response to the Ukrainian incursion into Kursk … and the reported rate of Ukrainian advance indicates that Ukrainian forces were able to achieve operational surprise,” the Washington-based ISW said late Thursday.
A Russian Defence Ministry statement on Friday said only that the military “continues to repel the attempted invasion” and is responding with air strikes, artillery and troops on the ground.
It claimed the Ukrainian armed forces have lost 945 soldiers and 102 armoured vehicles, including 12 tanks, in the assault. The claim could not be independently verified.
Ukraine has also kept up its strategy of hitting rear areas with long-range drones, targeting military sites, oil refineries and other infrastructure.
Ukrainian drones attacked Russia’s Lipetsk region, which is about 180 miles from the Ukraine border, during Thursday night, authorities said.
The regional emergencies ministry in Lipetsk said there was a fire at a military airfield where fighter planes including MiG-29s and Su-34s reportedly are based.
Lipetsk governor Igor Artamonov said that unspecified electrical infrastructure was damaged and nine people were wounded in the attack.
The Russian defence ministry said that 75 Ukrainian drones were shot down during the night, 19 of them over Lipetsk.
