Russian President Vladimir Putin attended the “Russia” Forum and Exhibition Organizers meeting in Moscow, Russia, on July 8, 2024, to celebrate the country’s major achievements.
Artyom Geodakyan | Artyom Geodakyan Reuters
Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to provide a “worthy response” to Ukraine’s ongoing incursions into Russian territory and on Monday evacuated a further 11,000 people from a second border area.
According to Reuters, Putin said in a video conference with senior security officials and regional governors: “The losses of the Ukrainian armed forces are increasing sharply, including the enemy’s most combat-ready troops who are moving to our borders.”
“The enemy will certainly receive a worthy response and there is no doubt that all objectives facing us will be achieved.”
Putin’s comments came after Russian officials ordered the evacuation of thousands of residents in a second border region as Ukraine’s incursion into Russian territory gathers pace.
Belgorod border region chief Andrei Myskov announced on Monday that 11,000 people had been killed after Krasnoyarsk region governor Vyacheslav Gradkov called “enemy activity” on the Ukrainian border. People were evacuated from the Krasnoyarsk region.
On August 11, 2024, during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainian soldiers drove Soviet-made T-64 tanks in the Sumy region near the Russian border.
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Miskov wrote on social media: “The evacuation of residents of the Krasnoyarsk region is carried out intensively. Currently, 11,000 out of 11,500 residents… have been successfully evacuated. About 1,000 people, including government personnel, have been evacuated. 500 people remain at the workplace. Translated by NBC News.
Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov Leave a comment on Monday “A shocking morning” of “enemy activity” occurred on the border of the Krasnoyarsk region.
“I am sure that our military personnel will do everything possible to deal with the threat that has emerged. But in order to protect the lives and health of our people, we have begun to move people living in the Krasnoyarsk region to safer places,” he was quoted as saying. NBC News translates. He noted that he saw large numbers of cars trying to flee the Krasnoyarsk region in the west of the region, which borders Sumy, Ukraine.
While Russian and Ukrainian forces continue to fight in eastern and southern Ukraine, tensions between Moscow and Kiev have further increased after Ukrainian forces made a daring incursion into Russia’s border region of Kursk last week.
The border attack, which began last Tuesday, appeared to have caught Moscow off guard, with the Russian Defense Ministry last Thursday revising initial estimates to say about 1,000 troops and a large number of tanks and armored vehicles were involved in the incursion.
A senior Ukrainian security official told AFP on Sunday on condition of anonymity “Thousands” of soldiers took part in the operationwhich marks Russia’s attempt to “expand” and “destabilize”. CNBC could not verify the report.
Screenshots from the video released by the Russian Ministry of Defense show that on August 8, 2024, the Russian army launched a missile attack on the military equipment of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the border area near Russia’s Kursk Oblast.
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Acting regional governor Alexei Smirnov said about 3,000 people in the region had been evacuated as Ukrainian drone and missile attacks continued. He posted on Telegram on Monday The threat of drone attacks persisted, and it said Russia’s “air defense forces and assets have been put on alert to repel a possible attack”.
As a result, the Kiev invasion disrupted Russia’s summer offensive in eastern Ukraine, forcing Moscow to redeploy troops to Kursk.
Last week, Russian defense officials claimed that their faction had blocked Ukraine’s advance on Kursk. Meanwhile, geolocation footage and Russian military blogs showed Ukrainian troops present in a 35-kilometer stretch of Russian territory. According to analysis by the think tank Institute for War Studies.
ISW pointed out that Ukraine’s actions in Kursk gave the Ukrainian army, at least temporarily, the battlefield initiative in a certain area of ​​the front line.
ISW said: “Since November 2023, Russia has held theater-wide initiative, which has allowed Russia to determine the location, timing, scale and requirements of operations in Ukraine and forced Ukraine to expend materials and manpower in reactive defense operations. “
“However, Ukrainian actions in the Kursk Oblast (region) forced the Kremlin and Russian military command to react and redeploy troops and means to areas where Ukrainian forces launched attacks.”
ISW said Putin and the Russian military command “may have mistakenly believed that Ukraine lacked the capabilities to counter this initiative”.
This photo posted by the Telegram channel of the acting governor of the Kursk region Alexei Smirnov on Tuesday, August 6, 2024, shows the city of Suja, Kursk region, bordering Ukraine Houses damaged after shelling.
Kursk Region Governor Telegram Channel (AP)
Ukraine has been traditionally tight-lipped about recent moves into Russian border territory. Kursk is one of several border regions that have experienced smaller, shorter incursions and come under more frequent Ukrainian drone strikes and shelling in recent months.
Russia and Ukraine say they do not target civilian areas.
However, President Zelenskyy acknowledged the attack on Sunday, referring to Ukraine’s “actions to push the war into the territory of the aggressor.”
Zelensky said he was grateful to Ukraine for “ensuring this” and that “Ukraine is proving that it can indeed deliver justice and guarantee the required pressure on the aggressor.”
Nuclear power plant dispute
A screenshot of the video released by Ukrainian President Zelensky shows that on August 11, 2024, a fire broke out at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant in Ukraine. Accusation.
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Moscow and Kyiv have blamed each other for Sunday’s fire at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, the latest incident as Ukraine continues its incursions into Russian border territory.
Ukrainian officials said Russian troops started a fire at the factory, which has been occupied since March 2022, while the Kremlin-appointed governor of the Zaporozhye region said Ukrainian shelling was the cause of the fire.
The occupied nuclear power plant has been a frequent point of conflict between Ukraine and Russia, with both countries repeatedly accusing each other of launching high-risk drones and shelling at or near the plant, endangering the safety of the facility and potentially triggering a nuclear disaster.
In the latest flare-up of tensions, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russian troops of setting fire to the ZNPP in the town of Enekhodar but said radiation levels there were normal.
“Things will not and cannot be normal as long as Russian terrorists continue to control the nuclear power plant. From the first day it seized the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, Russia has been using it to blackmail Ukraine, the entire Europe and the entire country.” world,” Zelensky said.
A view of the Russian-controlled Zaporozhye nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine on June 15, 2023.
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The Russian-appointed governor of the Zaporozhye region disputed that claim, saying in a social media update posted on Google Translate that Ukrainian shelling was to blame for the fire at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.
Post on TelegramA drone hit one of the factory’s cooling towers and started a fire, Yevgeny Balitsky said, adding that emergency services in the area had located and extinguished the flames.
Balitsky claimed: “The Ukrainian regime, with the support of NATO leaders, is systematically shelling the entire north of the Zaporozhye region, where drones, barrel artillery and mortars can reach it. But measures are being taken All measures are taken to limit the consequences of these attacks.
He said he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who “clearly expressed growing alarm and concern about strategic infrastructure, including nuclear power plants.”
Neither side provided evidence to support their claims. CNBC was unable to verify their report.
On June 15, 2023, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors appeared at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine.
Olga Maltseva | AFP | Getty Images
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has a rotating team of inspectors at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant to maintain safety protocols, X said in a statement on Sunday During the night, experts witnessed “intense black smoke” coming from the northern area of ​​the factory and “multiple explosions” occurring throughout the night.
The U.N. nuclear watchdog said it was aware of an alleged drone attack on one of the cooling towers early Sunday. The International Atomic Energy Agency said it has not yet had any impact on nuclear safety.
