KYIV: Ukraine’s top commander said on Thursday Kyiv had set up a military commandant’s office in the occupied part of Russia’s Kursk region where he said his forces were still advancing, even as Moscow’s troops stepped up its offensives in Ukraine’s east.
The remarks by Col. General Oleksandr Syrskyi were the strongest sign yet that Kyiv’s forces plan to dig in after launching a lightning cross-border assault on Russia last week that has opened a new front in the 2-1/2 year-old all-out war.
“We are moving forward in Kursk region. A military commandant’s office has been created which must ensure order and also all the needs of the local population,” Syrskyi said in a written statement on his Telegram channel. The office would be headed by Major General Eduard Moskalyov, he said.
Kyiv’s surge into Russian territory caught Moscow by surprise, seizing the initiative from the Kremlin’s forces who have been grinding out small but steady gains all year in eastern Ukraine. Some 18 percent of Ukraine is occupied by Russia.
Syrskyi told President Volodymyr Zelensky in a video published by the Ukrainian leader that the incursion had so far advanced 35 km (22 miles) into the Kursk region, capturing 82 settlements and an area of 1,150 square kilometers (444 square miles).
Though far higher than an estimate of 480 square km of territory given by the Russian acting regional governor of Kursk on Monday, the advances are the largest attack on Russia since World War Two and have overturned a perception of a fading Ukraine on the backfoot.
Zelensky, who spoke cryptically of the need to move on to the “next steps” in public remarks on Wednesday, again hinted at other possible offensive actions on Russian territory.
“We must clearly guarantee at the legislative level that our warriors, who participate, for example, in the Kursk operation and will participate in all our other actions on the territory of the aggressor state, will receive absolutely all payments and benefits designated for the front line,” he said in an address posted on Telegram.
Russia to toughen defenses
Russia said Ukrainian forces were still on the attack and that it would beef up its border defenses, improve command and control and send in additional forces.
“The enemy is pushing, it is trying to get through from everywhere, push through,” said Major General Apti Alaudinov, commander of Chechnya’s Akhmat special forces who are fighting in Kursk. “But every day the enemy’s forces are melting.”
Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov said the general staff had prepared a series of measures to defend Russia’s border regions of Kursk, Bryansk and Belgorod — which cover an area the size of Portugal.
Russian officials have warned that if Western weapons were used on Russian territory, then Moscow would consider that a grave escalation. Russian President Vladimir Putin has vowed to hit back with a “worthy response” to the incursion.
Syrskyi’s remarks suggested Kyiv’s rate of advance had slowed in the Kursk region. Ukraine, he said, had taken between 500 meters (547 yards) and 1.5 km in the last 24 hours, compared with between 1 and 2 km the day before.
No letup in the east
Ukraine said there was no sign that Russian military pressure was receding along the eastern front inside its borders and reported the heaviest fighting in weeks near the city of Pokrovsk, an important logistics hub.
The head of the Pokrovsk military administration appealed to locals to evacuate, saying Russian forces were getting closer.
“The enemy has come almost right up to the city of Pokrovsk. Just over 10 kilometers from the outskirts of the city,” he said on Telegram.
Syrskyi told Zelensky in his report by video link that the situation in the east and south where Russia has already captured swathes of the country was “difficult but under control.”
“The main efforts are focused on preventing the enemy from advancing in the directions of Toretsk and Pokrovsk, inflicting maximum losses, and creating favorable conditions for further actions,” he said.
