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Ukraine said on Monday its biggest cross-border assault of the war had captured 1,000 square kilometres (386 square miles) of Russia's Kursk region and that Russian President Vladimir Putin would have to be forced into making peace. With Russia still struggling to repel the surprise assault a week after it began, Ukraine's top commander Oleksandr Syrskyi briefed President Volodymyr Zelenskiy by video link and said the advance into Russian territory was ongoing. "We continue to conduct an offensive operation in the Kursk region. Currently, we control about 1,000 square kilometres of the territory of the Russian Federation," he said in...

Whatever the thrust of his comments, the Russian president’s tone and body language was decidedly less convincing. “Putin discussing Ukraine’s incursion into Russia, which he says the West is behind,” Nigel Gould-Davis, a former U.K. ambassador to Belarus, posted on X, formerly Twitter, along with a clip of Putin speaking at the summit. “He looks and sounds not angry, outraged, determined – but hesitant and rattled.” Though state media has naturally tried to steer clear of anything resembling explicit criticism of the Kremlin’s military efforts, propagandists have been unable to contain their growing alarm at the pace of Ukraine’s retaliatory...

Ukrainian drones broadcast to Russian soldiers to put their guns down and surrender as Zelensky's troops storm Kursk.

RUSSIAN citizens in Belgorod have been urged to take shelter in their basements after Ukraine's triumphant invasion. Some 121,000 people have fled Kursk as Vladimir Putin's crony governor admitted Kyiv forces now control over 28 towns in the borderland region. As Ukraine pushes its impressive invasion further into a second region, Belgorod, citizens there are also being told to evacuate. Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote in a Telegram message on Monday: "The entire territory of the Belgorod region is a MISSILE DANGER. "Go down to the basement. Stay there until you receive the signal 'all clear missile danger.'" Around 11,000...

MOSCOW, Aug 12 (Reuters) - Russia on Monday evacuated civilians from parts of a second region next to Ukraine after Kyiv increased military activity near the border just days after its biggest incursion into sovereign Russian territory since the start of the 2022 war. Ukrainian forces rammed through the Russian border last 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. Apparently caught by surprise, Russia by Sunday had stabilised the front in the Kursk region, though Ukraine had carved...

In recent weeks, reports have emerged from Russia suggesting a dramatic shift in allegiances involving Ramzan Kadyrov's Chechen forces. Military bloggers and analysts are abuzz with claims that Kadyrov’s troops have betrayed Russia and struck a covert agreement with Ukraine, raising serious questions about the loyalty and actions of these units, according to Ziare. According to military bloggers known for their "Z" commentary, Kadyrov's Akhmat unit allegedly backstabbed Russian forces by deliberately avoiding confrontation with Ukrainian troops during an offensive in the Kursk region. A former Wagner mercenary, who goes by the name Alex Parker, has shared on his Telegram...

Russian forces have been hammered by an offensive in Kursk since Tuesday Russia has evacuated more than 76,000 people from border areas in the western region of Kursk as Ukraine continues to push deeper in its cross-border offensive, Russian media reported today. 'More than 76,000 people have been temporarily relocated to safe places,' the state-run TASS news agency reported, citing a local official at a press briefing. Russia appears to have been caught off guard by a daring incursion into the southwestern Kursk region since Tuesday, though Ukraine has stopped short of formally claiming responsibility. On Tuesday, Pro-Kyiv forces stormed...

Thousands of Ukrainian troops are taking part in an incursion aiming to destabilise Russia by showing up the country’s weaknesses, a top official from Ukraine has said as the assault entered its sixth day. “We are on the offensive. The aim is to stretch the positions of the enemy, to inflict maximum losses and to destabilise the situation in Russia as they are unable to protect their own border,” the security official said on condition of anonymity. Russia’s army had said about 1,000 Ukrainian troops were deployed in the cross-border incursion that began on Tuesday and appeared to catch the...

UKRAINE has dealt Vladimir Putin another huge blow after blasting a Russian gas rig in the Black Sea, killing 40 soldiers.

Over 76,000 people have been evacuated from Russia's Kursk region, the local emergency ministry said. Russia evacuates 76,000 people from its border region of Kursk as Ukrainian troops advance into its territory in the largest incursion on Russian soil since the full-scale invasion in February 2022. Russia's Ministry of Defence released footage on Saturday showing what it claims to be tanks, troops and artillery systems deployed to the country's western region of Kursk in a bid to fight off Ukrainian armed forces that stormed the area early this week. The Kremlin released other footage claimed to show helicopters, fighter jets...

Ukrainian troops have been pictured in the village of Poroz in Russia's Belgorod region, opening yet another front after invading Kursk earlier this week. Unconfirmed videos widely shared on social media appeared to show members of the Georgian Legion and the 252nd Territorial Defence Battalion in front of the village club in Poroz just 2km from the Ukrainian border. While thousands of Ukraine's troops have stormed into Kursk Oblast to the north, this is the first time they have been pictured in Belgorod, opening yet another front inside Russia. Poroz is around 80km (50 miles) southeast of Pehklovo in the...

HUMILIATING video shows the moment despot Vladimir Putin looked slack-jawed as he's told by military chiefs that Russia has been invaded. The tyrant was ashen-faced in a crunch meeting with top generals where they told him 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers had made their way over the border. Putin lashed out on Wednesday, raging against Ukraine's "large-scale provocation" in the border region of Kursk. Russian military boss General Valery Gerasimov was forced to face the despot in a meeting and admit how a significant portion of territory in the region had been lost. The ageing despot, 71, looked quietly furious as he...

VLADIMIR Putin is rushing his troops and tanks to the Russian region of Kursk to defend against Ukraine's invasion.

Having gained a foothold in Russia’s southwestern Kursk region in the past few days, the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) are now fast approaching the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant in the city of Kurchatov, the city’s mayor Igor Korpunkov warned on Friday. Reporting that fighting between Ukrainian and Russian troops was taking place “a few dozen kilometres” from the city of Kurchatov, Korpunkov sought to assure residents that all services and business in the city were operating “normally” and urged them not to panic. “The enemy is not only employing military weapons against us, but also so-called ‘psychological special forces’....

President Vladimir Putin announced a compensation plan for citizens in the Russian region that came under attack by Ukraine. Russians "who need it" will be eligible for a one-time payout of 10,000 rubles, Putin said during a video call with Kursk's acting governor, Alexey Smirnov, per the Kyiv Post's translation. That shakes out at about $115. "Other damage will also need to be assessed," Putin said. Around 3,000 people have been evacuated from Kursk, the western Russian border region attacked by Ukrainian forces this week, officials have said. Speaking to Putin, Smirnov said that extra trains were scheduled to take...

A convoy of Ukrainian armoured vehicles carrying jubilant troops was captured trundling through Russia's Kursk region in a fresh humiliation for Vladimir Putin after Volodymyr Zelensky's forces launched a surprise assault earlier this week.Tanks, armoured personnel carriers, a UR-77 mine-clearing vehicle and other army equipment were seen surging through a rural area in footage taken by a Ukrainian mortar position and shared to Telegram this morning. Kyiv's forces stormed across the border on Tuesday morning, deploying around 1,000 troops and more than two dozen armoured vehicles and tanks in an unexpected assault on Russian soil, according to the Russian army.The...

A state of emergency has been declared in the Russian border region of Kursk as troops continue to battle against an alleged Ukrainian incursion. President Putin has accused Ukraine of a "large-scale provocation." Russia said on Wednesday that it was continuing to battle Ukrainian troops that crossed into the border region of Kursk a day earlier, with a state of emergency declared by the regional governor and security tightened around a nearby nuclear power plant. "To eliminate the consequences of enemy forces coming into the region, I took the decision to introduce a state of emergency in the Kursk region...

THIS is the moment a convoy of Ukrainian tanks rumble into Russia as Vladimir Putin's troops put up the white flag on their own turf. -snip- In Novoivanovka, the Ukrainians took prisoners, say reports. Previous footage showed dozens of soldiers submitting to Ukrainian forces as Russian positions in Nikolayevo-Darino and Oleshnya were raided amid intense cross-border offensive. Geolocated footage published by Ukraine Map shows dozens of men claimed to be Russians. Russian prisoners of war are seen in Ukrainian hands in a further humiliation for Putin. The surrendered soldiers and FSB border guards are shown on video after capture in...

Ukraine has reportedly captured hundreds of Russian soldiers in a further major blow to Vladimir Putin's army. -snip- New video images posted by Ukraine's army appear to show Russian prisoners of war captured during the incursion. The prisoners include troops from Russia’s 225th Assault Brigade, as well as FSB border guards. One captured Russian identified himself as 22-year-old Danil Kolesnikov from the Belgorod region. In a video clip of his interrogation, the soldier said he served in the 488th regiment on the border in the Kursk-Sudzha area. He was captured early on after Ukrainian troops crossed into Russia on Tuesday....

As Ukrainian forces move closer to the Kursk NPP Moscow is finally taking steps to protect it and its all-women guard force, but will it be too little, too late. The independent news site “Important Stories,” citing employees from the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant, says that the facility has been put at risk by negligence and hubris. As the Ukrainian Armed Forces move further into the Kursk region and are now less than 70 kilometers (45 miles) from the plant, Moscow is apparently moving Pantsir self-propelled, medium-range surface-to-air defense systems into the area. According to an anonymous source from within...