Moscow has hinted at who was behind Ukraine’s cross-border raid and vowed a strong response. The Russian government has not revealed the identity of the mastermind, but has stressed that any actions that threaten national security will be met with a decisive response.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman warns of strong response to Ukraine’s surprise attack on Kursk (Photo: AFP).“The mastermind must also be held accountable”
Although the US has publicly stated that it did not receive advance notice from Ukraine about the surprise attack, Moscow has made several statements suggesting that the Ukrainian raid will certainly face a strong response from Russia. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova asserted: “Those who planned and carried out this crime, including those who masterminded it from abroad, will be held accountable. The Russian military will respond firmly.”
Just one day after Ukraine launched a surprise attack on Kursk on August 6, Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov condemned it as an act of terrorism and accused the United States of transferring weapons to Ukraine to attack schools, hospitals and residential areas in Kursk, causing many civilian casualties. Mr. Antonov stressed that Ukraine could not justify these actions under the name of legitimate self-defense.
“It is clear that Ukraine’s provocation in Kursk is closely related to the situation of the Ukrainian army on the front line…
The public statements of US officials about the provocative actions of the Kiev authorities on Russian territory are absolutely unacceptable. Once again, US officials have not criticized Ukraine nor expressed their condolences to the victims of this tragedy,” Mr. Antonov criticized.
The Russian Ambassador to the United States called on the United States to immediately stop supplying weapons to Ukraine and once again affirmed that Russia’s border sovereignty is sacred, and no one can escape Russia’s retaliation.
Fighting remains fierce
An apartment building in Kursk was devastated in a surprise attack by Ukraine (Photo: Mosow Times).Regarding the conflict situation on the Russian border, on August 12, fighting between Russia and Ukraine was still fierce. Russia has begun evacuating people in another border area after the Ukrainian army increased military activity in this area. The governor of Belgorod Oblast, Vyacheslav Gladkov, announced that the threat from the other side of the border led to the evacuation in the Krasnaya Yaruga district.
Currently, Russia has imposed strict security in the Kursk, Bryansk and Belgorod regions. At the same time, Belarus, a close ally of Russia, has also increased its troops in the border area after accusing Ukrainian drones of invading Belarusian airspace.
The Russian Defense Ministry announced that on the night of August 11, the Russian military destroyed 5 drones in the Belgorod region, 11 in Kursk and 2 others in Voronezh in the process of suppressing Ukrainian attacks inside Russian territory.
In addition, the Russian Defense Ministry also listed a series of heavy weapons that the Russian military destroyed in Ukraine, including many tanks, armored vehicles, missile launchers, etc.
A demolished house in Kursk, in this photo provided by the Kursk governor after Ukraine’s cross-border attack on August 6 – Photo: NYT
The six-day-long raid by the Ukrainian military has prompted Russia to question how Ukraine managed to penetrate so deeply into the Kursk region with relative ease. This comes as a surprise, given that Kiev has been struggling to repel Russian assaults across eastern Ukraine ever since Russia launched its special military operation in February 2022.
