By AFP and Kontur | 2024-08-09

KYIV -- A Ukrainian offensive into Russia that began August 6 has the Kremlin scrambling to respond effectively.

Russia on August 9 said it was deploying more troops and munitions to Kursk province, where Ukraine has mounted a major ground offensive.

The reinforcements include columns of military hardware, including rocket launchers, artillery, tanks and heavy trucks, Russian state media reported.

In addition, Russia killed at least 10 Ukrainians by shelling a supermarket in Kostyantynivka on August 9, Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said in a post on Telegram.

Ukraine pressed on with a major cross-border incursion into Russia, also launching a significant air attack on a Russian airfield hundreds of kilometers behind the front lines.

The Ukrainian offensive into Kursk province appears to be the most significant attack on Russian soil since Moscow invaded in February 2022.

About 1,000 Ukrainian troops and more than two dozen armored vehicles and tanks were involved in the initial attack, said Russia, though it has since claimed to have destroyed many more pieces of hardware.

Kyiv has not officially taken responsibility for the operation, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his evening address August 8 that Russia needed to "feel" the consequences of its invasion.

Ukraine said it had carried out a massive air strike on a Russian military base in Lipetsk province, about 280km from the Russia-Ukraine border.

Local Russian governor Igor Artamonov reported a "massive" drone attack overnight, and Russian state news agencies said the airfield was on fire.

"Last night, the Ukrainian Defence Forces attacked the Lipetsk airfield," Ukraine's General Staff said in a post on Telegram.

It said it had struck "warehouses containing guided aerial bombs and a number of other facilities" and that a "massive fire broke out" with "multiple detonations."

Artamonov cancelled several public events in the province and issued evacuation orders for districts near the air base.

'Russia brought the war'

Russia's Defense Ministry on August 9 said it destroyed 75 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 19 over Lipetsk province and seven over Kursk, where Ukraine's four-day incursion has focused.

Several nautical drones headed for the annexed peninsula of Crimea were also destroyed, it said.

Ukraine's surprise offensive into Kursk province has appeared to catch Russia off guard, and triggered harsh criticism of the Defense Ministry by influential military bloggers.

Senior Kyiv officials have stayed tight-lipped over the incursion, though some, including Zelenskyy have appeared to justify the attack.

"Russia brought the war to our land and should feel what it has done," Zelenskyy said on August 8, without directly referring to the offensive.

"Everyone can see that the Ukrainian army knows how to surprise, and knows how to achieve results," he said in another apparent reference to the incursion without explicitly mentioning it.

Moscow has not presented detailed information on the extent of the Ukrainian incursion.

But the independent US-based Institute for the Study of War said Ukraine had made significant territorial advances.

"Geolocated footage and Russian claims indicate that Ukrainian forces continued rapid advances further into Kursk Oblast on August 8, and Ukrainian forces are reportedly present in areas as far as 35 kilometers from the international border with Sumy Oblast" in Ukraine, the institute said in its daily campaign assessment that day.

The US State Department and European Union have expressed support for Kyiv's right to defend itself from Russian aggression, without directly commenting on the operation.