Russia fighting intense battles against major Ukrainian incursion
Russia imposes security regime on border regions
Ukrainian forces battling inside Russia
Belarus destroys suspected drones from Ukraine
IAEA calls for restraint around Kursk nuclear station
Recasts headline and lead
By Guy Faulconbridge
MOSCOW, Aug 10 (Reuters) -Russia was fighting intense battles on Saturday against thousands of Ukrainian troops as deep as 20 km (12 miles) inside the Kursk region after Ukraine's biggest attack on Russian sovereign territory since the start of the war in 2022.
Ukrainian forces rammed through the Russian border early on Tuesday and swept across some Western parts of Russia's Kursk region, a surprise attack that may be aimed at gaining leverage in possible ceasefire talks after the U.S. election.
Supported by swarms of drones and heavy artillery fire, Ukrainian units moved quickly to carve out a sliver of the Western Russian territory beside the border while sabotage units pierced deeper inside Russia, according to Russian war bloggers.
"The armed forces continue to repel the attempted invasion by the Ukrainian armed forces," Russia's defence ministry said on Saturday, adding that intense battles were focused around Malaya Loknya, Olgovka and Ivashkovskoye, settlements around 10-20 km inside Russia.
In a sign of the gravity of the situation, Russia imposed a sweeping security regime in three border regions on Saturday while Belarus said it had repelled what it thinks was a major drone attack from Ukraine.
President Vladimir Putin cast the Ukrainian attack as a major provocation and though Russia's top general, Valery Gerasimov, said on Wednesday that Ukraine's incursion had been halted, Russia has thus far failed to push the Ukrainian forces back over the border.
Russian military bloggers said on Saturday the situation had stabilised after Russia rushed in forces to halt the surprise advance, though they said Ukraine was swiftly building up forces.
The Ukrainian attack has prompted some in Moscow to question why Ukraine was able to pierce the Kursk region so easily after more than two years of the most intense land war in Europe since World War Two.
"A full scale military operation is underway against a very serious enemy who are certainly not idiots," said Yuri Podolyaka, a popular Ukrainian-born, pro-Russian military blogger. He said that Russian aviation had saved the day by pummeling scores of invading Ukrainian units, but also said the truth should be told about the gravity of the situation.
U.S. SUPPORT
The battles around Sudzha come at a crucial juncture in the war: Kyiv is concerned that U.S. support could weaken if Republican Donald Trump wins the November presidential election.
Trump has said he would end the war, and both Russia and Ukraine are keen to gain the strongest possible bargaining position on the battlefield.
Ukraine wants to pin down Russian forces, which control 18% of its territory, while showing the West that it can still muster major military operations that hurt Russia even if the Kursk front is unlikely to change the outcome of the war.
Ukraine has not commented directly on the attack but video posted on Ukrainian media purported to show Ukrainian soldiers in control of a gas measuring facility in the border town of Sudzha, where Russian natural gas flows into Ukraine for transit to Europe.
Reuters could not verify the video. Reports from Russian sources said Ukraine was in control of some areas of Sudzha. Gas was still flowing through the pipeline on Saturday.
Alexander Bortnikov, the director of the Federal Security Service (FSB), ordered an anti-terrorist regime be imposed on Kursk, Bryansk and Belgorod regions - which have a combined area of nearly 92,000 square km.
The measures essentially give the security services sweeping powers to lockdown an area, including controls on communications and limits on a host of usual freedoms. Thousands of civilians have been evacuated from Kursk region.
Some reports said Ukrainian forces were pushing towards the Kursk nuclear power station, which supplies a major chunk of southern Russia's electricity. It has a total six reactors, two shutdown, two under construction and two operational.
The acting governor of Kursk region, Alexei Smirnov, said drone debris had fallen on a power substation near Kurchatov, the town which serves the Kursk nuclear station, which said it was operating as normal on Saturday.
The head of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency noted the "significant military activity" in the area and called for restraint.
Russian diplomats in Vienna told the IAEA that fragments, possibly from downed missiles, had been found, though there was no evidence of an attack on the station.
Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Ros Russell and Clelia Oziel
면책조항: XM Group 회사는 체결 전용 서비스와 온라인 거래 플랫폼에 대한 접근을 제공하여, 개인이 웹사이트에서 또는 웹사이트를 통해 이용 가능한 콘텐츠를 보거나 사용할 수 있도록 허용합니다. 이에 대해 변경하거나 확장할 의도는 없습니다. 이러한 접근 및 사용에는 다음 사항이 항상 적용됩니다: (i) 이용 약관, (ii) 위험 경고, (iii) 완전 면책조항. 따라서, 이러한 콘텐츠는 일반적인 정보에 불과합니다. 특히, 온라인 거래 플랫폼의 콘텐츠는 금융 시장에서의 거래에 대한 권유나 제안이 아닙니다. 금융 시장에서의 거래는 자본에 상당한 위험을 수반합니다.
온라인 거래 플랫폼에 공개된 모든 자료는 교육/정보 목적으로만 제공되며, 금융, 투자세 또는 거래 조언 및 권고, 거래 가격 기록, 금융 상품 또는 원치 않는 금융 프로모션의 거래 제안 또는 권유를 포함하지 않으며, 포함해서도 안됩니다.
이 웹사이트에 포함된 모든 의견, 뉴스, 리서치, 분석, 가격, 기타 정보 또는 제3자 사이트에 대한 링크와 같이 XM이 준비하는 콘텐츠 뿐만 아니라, 제3자 콘텐츠는 일반 시장 논평으로서 "현재" 기준으로 제공되며, 투자 조언으로 여겨지지 않습니다. 모든 콘텐츠가 투자 리서치로 해석되는 경우, 투자 리서치의 독립성을 촉진하기 위해 고안된 법적 요건에 따라 콘텐츠가 의도되지 않았으며, 준비되지 않았다는 점을 인지하고 동의해야 합니다. 따라서, 관련 법률 및 규정에 따른 마케팅 커뮤니케이션이라고 간주됩니다. 여기에서 접근할 수 있는 앞서 언급한 정보에 대한 비독립 투자 리서치 및 위험 경고 알림을 읽고, 이해하시기 바랍니다.
