Russia hastily builds trenches in Kursk

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Ukrainian forces have advanced further into Russia as the Kremlin began building trenches far behind the front lines in a sign of deepening concern about the potential extent of the invasion.
Oleksander Syrsky, Ukraine’s army chief, said that his forces had pushed another 2km into the border region of Kursk, capturing 100 more prisoners of war.
Kyiv’s troops filmed themselves inside a captured Russian command point, as Moscow struggled to halt the cross-border incursion that has now lasted more than a week.
“The search for and destruction of the enemy in the town of Sudzha has been completed,” Mr Syrsky said, referring to the Ukrainian-controlled home of Russia’s last gas terminal for shipments to Europe.
Ukrainian state television broadcast a report showing soldiers pulling down the Russian flag from the city’s three-storey administrative building as they shouted: “Glory to Ukraine!”
Igor Klymenko, the interior minister, said Ukraine would create a “buffer zone” in Kursk to prevent Russian cross-border strikes.
Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, warned that his drone arsenal was not enough to protect his troops, in an appeal for the UK and Western allies to drop limits on long-range missile strikes inside  Russia.
“There are things you can’t do with drones alone. Unfortunately. Another weapon is needed – a missile weapon,” he wrote last night on Telegram.
“The bolder the partners’ decisions, the less Putin can do,” he added.
Kyiv’s troops are estimated to hold around 1,000 sq km of territory inside Russia.
Moscow said it had repelled Ukrainian attempts to push further into five areas of Kursk.
“The attempts by enemy mobile units using armoured equipment to break through deeper into Russian territory have been repelled,” its defence ministry said.
But new satellite images revealed a growing maze of trenches dug behind the current front lines of the fighting.
Job adverts have appeared online in Russia offering handymen up to 210,000 rubles (£1,800) a month to help build a multi-layered network of anti-tank ditches, trenches and pillboxes across Kursk.
The deepest of the trenches found so far by open source researchers is 28 miles north of the Ukrainian-Russian border.
The ditch was dug in a field on the southern tip of the city of Lgov during the first four days of the incursion, which began on Aug 6.
It would appear the trench is designed to act as protection for the town, as it sits on a major entrance road.
Geolocated footage shared on social media revealed a battle between Ukrainian and Russian forces near the village of Kromski Byky, less than 10 miles from Lgov.
A similar fortification has been dug on the city’s south-western edge, suggesting the Russians see it as a potential target for a Ukrainian advance.
Russian forces have started work on a third fortification on a junction on the E38 highway, which runs east to west across the Kursk region through some of its most important cities.
The trenches sit on the point where the R200 road from Ukraine’s border, through Kyiv-controlled Sudzha, meets the major highway.
The defences appear to stretch for more than 10 miles and were likely built to protect the Kursk nuclear power plant, less than 10 miles north.
OSINTtechnical, an open source researcher on X, said: “Russian forces have been developing a trench network that, if fallen back to, would cede Ukraine a massive amount of territory.”
Kursk’s neighbouring Belgorod region declared a state of emergency on Wednesday in response to escalating Ukrainian attacks.
US officials told The Wall Street Journal that Moscow was withdrawing some of its forces from Ukraine in response to the attacks.
Joe Biden said the invasion had “created a real dilemma” for Vladimir Putin, in the US president’s first substantive comments on the operation.
The West was “poking the bear” by assisting Kyiv’s incursion, Maria Butina, a Russian politician convicted by the US on spy charges, said.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s general staff said it had shot down a Russian Su-34 fighter bomber “during a combat mission” in Kursk on Wednesday.
The aircraft are used to drop glide bombs and missiles on Ukrainian military positions and cities.
On Wednesday morning, Ukraine also launched one of its largest drone strikes on Russia since the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Moscow said Kyiv had unleashed a barrage of 117 drones at air bases deep inside Russia.
Locals reported hearing explosions at the Savasleyka, Borisoglebsk and Baltimore airbases. Sources from Ukraine’s SBU security service said a fourth was struck in the Kursk region.
The strikes were planned to prevent Russia’s air force from using them to launch guided aerial bombs along the front line and on Ukrainian cities, the Kyiv Post reported, citing a source within the SBU security agency.
Body cam footage purported to show a Ukrainian special forces unit ambushing a truck-load of Russian troops east of Sudzha.
Kyiv’s elite UA Reg Team flanked the vehicle through the treeline, unleashing gunfire and what appeared to be a rocket propelled grenade.
The four-minute video, which the unit shared online on Tuesday, ends with its troops pulling the Russian patches from their dead enemies’ helmets.
Thank you for following today’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine. We’ll be back soon with more updates and analysis from the conflict.
Russian police have arrested a US citizen in Moscow for allegedly hitting a police officer, state media reported on Thursday.
The US citizen, identified by an anonymous source as Tiger Joseph, was approached by police on Monday night after he attempted to check into a hotel without a Russian migration card – a document issued to foreigners upon entering the country.
“The defendant refused to provide documents proving his identity, after which he used violence against a law enforcement officer,” said an Investigative Committee spokeswoman, Yulia Ivanova.
Mr Joseph was said to have “hit a [police] employee on the forearm” and “pushed her.”
If found guilty, he could face up to five years in prison for assaulting an officer.
“Investigators plan to request that the Meshchansky District Court impose pre-trial detention as a preventive measure,” Ms Ivanova said.
Two people have been killed and three wounded by Russian drones that attacked a medical battalion vehicle in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, the regional police have reported. 
The drone attack killed two medics in the settlement of Bilyy Kolodiaz, Serhii Bolvinov, head of the investigative department of the National Police, said on Facebook.
Three civilians in a nearby moving car were wounded in the attack, he added.
Russia denies deliberately targeting civilians, but thousands have been killed and wounded in its strikes during its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
A video has emerged of Ukrainian troops ridiculing president Vladimir Putin’s army generals, after Kyiv’s army seized a major command post in Kursk.
“Faster! Tanks go this way!,” the soldiers can be heard saying in the clip, shared by war blogger Dmitri Masinski.
One said: “We asked for two tanks!,” prompting the soldiers to keel over in fits of laughter, as another replies: “Grab a pen and write that down.”
One soldier pretends to call Russia’s army general Valery Gerasimov and yells: “Where is the ammo?”
With subtitles. https://t.co/LXsWDXCk28 pic.twitter.com/CF7QYbZwC1
President Vladimir Putin appointed his aide and former bodyguard Alexei Dyumin to oversee Russia’s military response to the Ukrainian surprise attack in the Kursk region, a federal lawmaker said Tuesday.
The pro-Kremlin Telegram channel Politsatirka noted that Dyumin’s military experience, “especially since the annexation of Crimea,” could be integral in concerting defense efforts.
Yana, a Ukrainian FPV drone operator, has worked in the conflict since Russia launched its invasion in 2022. 
She was recently injured on the frontline, but has stayed resilient nonetheless. 
Yana posted on Instagram: “This is the face of a non-woman’s war… The fighting spirit is not lost! Ukraine will prevail!”
A post shared by Яна (@multiiikk)
Ukrainian forces have shot down one of Russia’s most expensive fighter jets over the Kursk region, Kyiv’s top general said on Wednesday.
“Ukrainian defence forces destroyed an enemy Su-34,” Oleksandr Syrskyi wrote on the Telegram messaging app. “The skies over Kursk region became clearer.”
The Russian fighter bomber, also known as the Fullback, has an estimated price tag of around £30 million, and is often used to fire glide bombs at Ukrainian cities.
The downing of the aircraft coincides with reports that Ukraine has brought up more air defence systems to the border with Russia’s Kursk region as Kyiv’s incursion continues into its eighth day.
Russian sources close to the country’s air force accused Kyiv of lying about its prized scalp.
🇺🇦 Defense forces destroyed the enemy Su-34 aircraft. The sky over the Kursk region became clearer — @CinC_AFU pic.twitter.com/eUZHtiBnr0
Footage that first surfaced online on Tuesday shows Ukrainian forces on patrol in a Russian village in the Kursk region.
The Telegraph was unable to confirm the location of the video.
Ukraine now claims to have control of 74 settlements and 385 square miles of territory, Volodymyr Zelensky said his troops had advanced over a mile on Wednesday morning alone.
Maria Butina, a Russian lawmaker, said that the West was “poking the bear” by assisting in Ukraine’s incursion into Russia in a dangerous escalation.
The US and Ukraine’s other allies have denied that they were informed beforehand of the surprise attack on Russia’s Kursk region.
“Of course they are involved,” Ms Butina said. “When I studied in the United States the main rule was: ‘Don’t poke the bear’. What the West is doing today? They are poking the bear.”
Ms Butina was previously convicted of spying in the US in 2018 after embedding herself in the National Rifle Association (NRA).
This is the moment Ukrainian drones hit stationary fighter jets at Russia’s Savasleyka airfield in the Nizhny Novgorod region.
The Russian airbase is home to MiG-31K fighter jets which are capable of carrying Kinzhal missiles used to strike Ukraine. 
Ukraine is creating a “security zone” in Russia’s Kursk region and plans to organise humanitarian assistance and evacuation corridors for civilians looking to go either to Russia or to Ukraine, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister said. 
Iryna Vereshchuk added that Ukraine planned to organise access to the area for international humanitarian organisations as well.
Russia has accused 10,000 people of “discrediting” its army since launching its invasion of Ukraine. 
New laws were passed in Russia soon after the invasion, which made it an offence to criticise the armed forces. 
Thousands of people have been detained since the laws were brought in, including repeat offenders who face years in prison. 
The 10,000th case was submitted to court in the first week of August, according to local media. 
A second border region in Russia has declared a state of emergency after Ukraine began bombarding it early on Wednesday.
“The situation in our Belgorod region remains extremely difficult and tense due to shelling from the Ukrainian armed forces. Houses are destroyed, civilians died and were injured,” said Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of the region.
Thousands of Ukrainian troops rammed through the Russian border in the early hours of Aug 6 into Russia’s Kursk region, which neighbours Belgorod, catching Moscow off-guard and slicing through its defences.
Although Vladimir Putin vowed to “drive out the enemy”, intense battles have so far failed to expel them, with Kyiv’s forces claiming to have now seized control of 74 settlements and prompting the evacuations of 200,000.
The surprise incursion has “created a real dilemma” for Putin, Joe Biden, the US president, said in his first comments on Kyiv’s operations on Russian soil on Tuesday.
Satellite images show freshly dug trenches close to the town of Lgov, which is over 30 miles from the border with Ukraine.
The new fortifications suggest Russia is fearful that Ukraine will continue its advance miles deeper into Russian territory.
A German military base which is regularly used by Ukrainian soldiers has been locked down as authorities investigate suspected sabotage. 
The base, located in Cologne-Wahn, “has been locked down because there is a suspicion of an attempted intrusion and a suspicion of sabotage,” Colonel Arne Collatz, the defence ministry spokesman, told reporters in Berlin.
Soldiers and civilians on the Bundeswehr base have been advised not to drink the tap water, local media reports, over concerns that the water supply “may be contaminated”.
The base is used by Ukrainian soldiers to fly home from there, via Poland, after receiving training in Germany. 
Polish prosecutors received a European arrest warrant for the Ukrainian diver accused of carrying out the 2022 attack on Nord Stream pipelines, but said he had left the country.
The man, named as Volodymyr Z, was able to leave Poland as Germany had failed to include his name in a database of wanted persons, they said. 
The multi-billion dollar Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines transporting gas under the Baltic Sea were ruptured by a series of explosions in September 2022, seven months after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Russia is relying on inexperienced conscripts to defend the Kursk border region following Ukraine’s invasion, according to sources.
At least 52 families have been in touch with Russia’s defence ministry after losing contact with their sons, The Moscow Times reported.
It is not known how many conscripts are fighting in Kursk, however over 100 were stationed there before the incursion and 30 are now believed to be in captivity.
The involvement of conscripts in combat is unpopular across Russia.
Ukraine carried out its “largest drone attack yet” on four Russian military airfields overnight, a Ukrainian security source said.
The attack was aimed at undermining Russia’s ability to use warplanes for glide bomb attacks, the source added.
Ukraine claimed to have captured more than 100 Russian prisoners of war during its offensive in Kursk. 
Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, made the claim during his morning briefing on Wednesday. 
The Ukrainian leader also appeared to hint at the previously unspecified goals behind Ukraine’s offensive on Russian soil, by suggesting it was to “accelerate the return of our guys and girls home”.
Volodymyr Zelensky has said that Ukraine’s forces continue to advance in Kursk, piercing one to two kilometers further into Russia on Wednesday morning alone.
His comments come in contrast to Russian claims that the Kursk frontline had been stabilised.
Morning report by Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi on the situation across all major directions, particularly in the Toretsk and Pokrovsk areas, as well as the operation in the Kursk region.We are not forgetting our eastern front for a second. I have instructed the… pic.twitter.com/5RE6EgLFn8
Russian forces appear to be digging trenches 27 miles from its border with Ukraine in the Kursk region.
Satellite images have shown the hastily-dug defensive lines appearing miles away from Ukraine’s current battlefield positions inside Russian territory, near to Lgov and Kurchatov.
The moves help bolster Russian sources that claimed Russia was planning to halt further Ukrainian advances, despite its military suggesting Ukraine’s offensive had stalled.
Petteri Orpo, Finland’s prime minister, is the latest Western leader to give his vocal support of Ukraine’s invasion of Russia. 
“Ukraine has the right to self-defence and it’s clear that they can do their operation in Kursk,” Mr Orpo told a press conference, alongside Kristen Michal, the prime minister of Estonia. 
Mr Michal said: “We fully support Ukraine in its different operations and personally I wish them luck.”
It follows vocal support from Joe Biden, the US President, and Donald Tusk, Poland’s prime minister. 
Footage showed the moment Ukrainian drones targeted Savasleyka airbase, 500 miles deep into Russia, as part of a major overnight attack across two regions.
The video shows several explosions close to the airfield, where Russia keeps Mig-31s, the carriers of Kinzhal missiles, after 10 impacts were made, local sources said.
The TV report referenced in our last post also shows Ukrainian soldiers pulling down Russian flags from an official building in Sudzha in the Kursk border region.
The video, aired by Ukrainian state TV, shows the flags being taken down from a three-storey official building as troops shout: “Glory to Ukraine.”
A TV report from Sudzha, a Russian town now under Ukrainian control, details how local residents were left starving in their basements until Ukrainian troops arrived with aid.
Residents of the town, situated in the Kursk border region, claim they were not told to evacuate by Russian authorities.
Many of the residents said they have been unable to leave their basements over the last week as Russian bombs rained down on the town. 
Sudzha, which has borne the brunt of Kyiv’s offensive, is located around six miles from the Ukrainian border. 
Ukrainian report from Sudzha, where many residents were left to deal with hunger and Russian air strikes until Ukrainian aid arrived together with journalists. pic.twitter.com/3MCMrJSepY
Ukraine has the full right to counter Russia’s aggression “as effectively as possible,” Donald Tusk, Poland’s prime minister, said in reference to Kyiv’s incursion into Kursk.
When asked about Ukraine’s use of Western-supplied weapons during the operations on Russian soil, Mr Tusk said that Kyiv’s “actions are defensive.”
Kyiv has put the issue of peace talks with Russia “on a long pause” by attacking Russia’s Kursk region, Rodion Miroshnik, Russia’s foreign ministry special envoy, said on Wednesday.
Russia is withdrawing some of its military forces in Ukraine to respond to Ukraine’s invasion of the Kursk region, US officials have said.
The officials told the Wall Street Journal that they are still seeking to determine the significance of the move and did not say how many troops had been redeployed.
However, it is the first clear sign that Kyiv’s ongoing incursion is having direct ramifications on the front line. The new US assessment also bolsters earlier claims from Ukrainian officials that Russia was removing forces from southeast Ukraine to counter their assault.
Three airfields deep within Russia are believed to have been targeted in a major Ukrainian missile and drone attack spanning two regions last night.
Unverified footage showed explosions at the Savasleyka airfield in the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, as well as Borysoglebsk and Baltimore airbases within the Voronezh Oblast.
A huge fire was raging at Borisoglebsk airbase in Voronezh region, home to the 160th Fighter Aviation Regiment. 
Aircraft designed to launch guided aerial bombs take off from the Baltimore airfield, while MiG-31 supersonic interceptor aircrafts are held at the Savasleyka airfield.
In total, Russia claimed to have destroyed 117 drones and four missiles overnight – one of the largest barrages launched by Ukraine in the war so far.
Ukraine launched a major drone attack on a Russian airbase, 500 miles east of the border, where Moscow is reported to keep its hypersonic missiles.
Footage showed large explosions close to the Savasleyka airfield as loud air raid sirens rang out.
According to local sources, there were at least 10 impacts at the military base, where Russia flies Mig-31s, the carriers of Kinzhal missiles.
Gleb Nikitin, the local governor, said air defence forces engaged incoming drones in the Kulebyaki district. Traffic to the town of Kulebyaki was blocked.
Ukraine launches a wave of attack drones at the Russian air base in Savasleyka, some 500 miles east of the border, where the MiG-31K (carriers of Kinzhal hypersonic missiles) are based. Locals report ten explosions. pic.twitter.com/PW4MDcTxeF
Russia’s air defence units destroyed 37 drones that Ukraine launched overnight targeting the Voronezh region, south of Moscow, the Russian defence ministry said on Wednesday.
The ministry did not say how many drones in total Ukraine launched. Alexander Gusev, governor of Voronezh, said on Telegram there were no casualties, but that several residential houses were damaged.
Moscow and Kyiv rarely disclose the full extent of damage inflicted by attacks on them unless there are injuries or damage to residential buildings.
Ukraine kept pounding the Russian border region of Kursk with missiles and drones on Wednesday, as Kyiv said it had made further territorial gains in its startling incursion.
Four Ukraine-launched missiles were destroyed over Kursk and the whole region was under air raid alerts on and off most of the night, its regional governor said early Wednesday.
Ukraine’s account has jarred with Russia’s assertions that Kyiv’s troops had been halted and attacks had been repelled at villages about 16 to 17 miles from the border.
Germany has reportedly issued a European arrest warrant against a Ukrainian diving instructor who allegedly was part of a team that blew up the Nord Stream gas pipelines.
German investigators believe the man, last known to have lived in Poland, was one of the divers who planted explosive devices on pipelines running from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea in September 2022, three German media outlets reported on Wednesday.
Germany had asked Poland to arrest the man in June, the reports said.
When Ukrainian forces crossed the Russian border in the early hours of Aug 6, they sliced through Moscow’s defences like a knife through butter.
Strict operational security obviously helped. Ukrainian commanders learnt of the operation only three days in advance; ordinary troops on the day it took place.
But the Ukranianians were also pushing on a Russian weak spot, where a shortage of decent manpower was exacerbated by the absence of a clear Russian chain of command.
It is in stark contrast to last year’s failed counter-offensive.
Read the full story here.
Ukraine’s invasion into Russia has “created a real dilemma” for Vladimir Putin, Joe Biden has said in his first substantive comments on Kyiv’s operations on Russian soil.
It has been eight days since Ukraine launched a surprise cross-border assault into Russia’s Kursk region and its forces now claim to hold 74 settlements, prompting the evacuations of over 200,000.
“It’s creating a real dilemma for Putin,” the US president said on Tuesday, adding that he was being briefed every five hours on the ongoing operation and remained in constant contact with Kyiv.
US officials say they are still seeking to learn what Ukraine wants to achieve with its attack, while Kyiv has said it has no interest in permanently holding on to Russian territory.
We’re bringing you all the latest from the war in Ukraine and Kyiv’s ongoing incursion into Russia.