'We know how to surprise': Ukraine acknowledges incursions in Russia as Putin fumes

As Russian President Vladimir Putin fumes over the Ukrainian incursion in Russia, Ukraine has said it’s the consequence of Russian actions.

Earlier this week, it was reported that Ukrainian military has crossed the border and is fighting in Russia’s Kursk province. A Ukrainian commander claimed that the military had captured the town of Sudhza.

It was not until Thursday that Ukraine acknowledged the cross-border fighting. Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said that the root cause for any escalation on part of Ukraine, including the incursion into Kursk, was “unequivocal aggression” on the part of Russia in believing it could invade Ukraine with impunity, according to The Guardian.

Podolyak further said that Russia is now reaping the consequences of its actions.

“War is war, with its own rules, where the aggressor inevitably reaps corresponding outcomes,” said Podolyak, as per the newspaper.

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In an apparent reference to the Ukrainian incursion into Kursk, Zelenskyy on Thursday that the world was seeing that Ukraine could still surprise.

Zelenskyy said that “everyone can see that the Ukrainian army knows how to surprise”, as per the newspaper.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the incursion is a "major escalation" and that Ukrainian forces were “indiscriminately” attacking Russian civilians.

What we know of Kursk incursion?

While it is now confirmed that Ukrainian forces are battling the Russians in the town of Sudhza in Kursk province, the nature of fighting and control of territories is not yet clear.

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While a Ukranian commander claimed earlier this week that the army had captured Sudhza, the Guardian has now reported Russian military bloggers as saying that fighting is still ongoing in Sudhza and only the western part of the town appears to be under Ukrainian control.

The Russian state-run TASS news agency has reported that 3,000 Russians have been evacuated from Kursk since the beginning of the attack.

While there have previously been attacks inside Russia, The Guardians noted those were from anti-Putin Russian groups. This is the first time Ukraine has attacked inside Russia and that too involving everything: infantry, armoured vehicles, drones, air defence systems, electronic warfare systems, etc.

A Ukrainian commander told British newspaper i that taking the war inside Russia was the only way to ease the pressure on Ukrainian forces elsewhere.

“We have no wish to be on Russian territory but there is no other way to take the pressure off of the front line in Donbas, in Zaporizhzhia. We know we can’t go toe-to-toe with them in the east using the tactics they use because they don’t care about their guys and for us our soldiers are our best resource. So for us this is the best way to draw their forces from the east and reinforce our border,” said the commander.