The Russians in the Kursk region were ‘shaken’ by Ukraine’s new attack Russia-Ukraine war news

On Sunday, photographer and social activist Oleg Pogozhikh went to work in his studio in the western Russian city of Kursk amid the sound of explosions.

The Kursk region, which sits on the border, was bombarded sporadically at the beginning of the full-scale war with Ukraine. The fighting was exacerbated by Ukraine’s bold incursion into the region last August, capturing several settlements. After that, Russia took back most of the territories it had captured.

But as Ukraine began this weekend, the fighting resumed A new offensive in Kursk.

“Everything is the same as usual: missile warning sirens, explosions nearby,” Pogojikh wrote in his Telegram feed under the caption Kursk Eye.

“Today is particularly noisy. I’m in the studio, I’ve been so shaken a couple of times it’s covered my ears. Close it. So close that the question arises: what is the enemy trying to achieve? Of course, their goal is to spoil the festive season, create panic and distract attention.”

At around 9 o’clock that morning, the Ukrainian forces advanced from the occupied Sudja territory to the Kursk city towards the villages of Berdin and Bolshoye Soldatskoye and attacked again.

Yan Furtsev, a local official of Russia’s liberal opposition party “Yabloko”, said, “The incidents started happening earlier, that is, after midnight.”

“A missile warning was sounded, explosions were heard on the streets of Kursk as a result of the anti-missile defense systems. However, the frequency of explosions this night was higher than in previous January nights and even in December. In almost 24 hours, 16 missile warnings and one drone attack warning were heard.

During the attack, Deputy Minister of Defense Yunus-bek Yevkurov went to the city of Kursk and met with the local governor. Although the reasons for his visit have not been officially disclosed, it is believed that he came to personally supervise the defense of the region.

“All this cannot but cause anxiety among the citizens living in the city of Kursk, as the noise and shock waves from the downed drones and missiles are noticeably spreading to the outskirts of the city,” Furtsev said, adding that local residents were more worried than in the first week. January is a government holiday in Russia, which means there is little information.

But not all residents are afraid of fear.

“Everything is calm and good in Kursk,” Pogozhikh told Al Jazeera.

“I am confident in the Russian army. It might be noisy, but people don’t mind. The attack of (enemy) troops is visible only on Telegram. In fact, this is far from the truth. Life goes on as usual. Russian air defense forces shoot down their own drones and missiles, so few people pay attention to them. Of course, when the enemy targets civilian objects, the death of women, children, and the elderly makes us a little angry.”

Crisis Group chief analyst Oleg Ignatov told Al Jazeera that the scale of Ukraine’s latest attack is “still small.”

“There have been no significant gains so far,” he said. “Russian forces are better prepared to defend themselves this time. “But maybe what happened was a distraction or a test, followed by a major strike attempt somewhere else.”

He added that Ukraine needs “new successes on the ground” before the administration of the newly elected US president Donald Trump when it begins, the moment many have been waiting for will change the trajectory of the Russia-Ukraine war, possibly toward a ceasefire.

“The goals here are political, not military, as in the Kursk operation in the summer,” Ignatov said.

In October, Russian officials said that since February 2022, at least 398 civilians have been killed as a result of military operations in Russia’s border regions.

“If we talk about the city of Kursk, it was quieter in previous months – on some days there could be a missile threat warning once or twice a day,” Furtsev said.

“If we talk about the Kursk region in general, in the second half of December and the first days of January, the border towns of Rilsk and Lgov, the village of Ivanovskoye in the Rilsk district were attacked by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. as a result, the cities suffered considerable damage. The reconstruction of destroyed objects is still ongoing. People in border areas are more likely to die from attacks. On January 3, a 63-year-old man was killed in the Rilsk region as a result of the shooting down of a combat drone.”

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Sunday’s attack included “two tanks, one anti-obstacle vehicle and 12 armored fighting vehicles.”

The Russian military has since claimed to have repelled the attack, destroying part of the Ukrainian armored column with heavy air and artillery fire.

In August last year, Ukrainian troops seized territory just above the border with Russia, including the town of Sudja, home to an important pipeline supplying Europe with Russian gas. However, the gas flow stopped On January 1, the agreement between the two warring parties expired.

During the occupation of Sudja, Ukraine assumed responsibility for maintaining law and order, as well as providing essential items such as food, water and medicine, but confiscated the mobile phones of the remaining local population to prevent them from informing the enemy of movements.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hinted in an interview with NBC in September that the fate of Kursk could play a role in future ceasefire negotiations. In November, displaced people from Sudja staged a small protest in Kursk, accusing the authorities of failing to protect them.

But despite Ukraine’s early successes, the Russians are slowly regaining their ground, and Sudja itself is being bombarded as Russia tries to retake it.

Although the Kremlin has denied all claims about North Korean troops, Russian forces in the region have reportedly been reinforced by 12,000 additional troops from its ally North Korea. If the North Koreans are there, they keep a low profile and are hardly seen in public.

“There are all kinds of rumors,” Pogojix said.

“I have heard about the Koreans, but I take it as a story. But it is a fact that the gods and the Almighty helped the Russians.

However, the Moscow army could not completely defeat the Ukrainians.

Before Sunday’s operation, Zelensky claimed that Russian and North Korean soldiers suffered heavy losses, and that an entire North Korean battalion was destroyed near the village of Makhnovka.