Moscow, 10 August 2024 (TDI): Russia launched a military operation on Saturday in the three border regions of Belgorod, Kursk, and Bryansk as Ukraine presses on with its biggest attack on Russian soil since the war began almost two and a half years ago.
Russia has deployed additional forces and equipment, including rocket launchers, tanks, and aviation units to try to stop Ukraine’s advancing troops.
Russia on Saturday launched a “counter-terror operation” in three border regions adjoining Ukraine to halt Kyiv’s biggest cross-border offensive in war.
Ukrainian troops stormed across the border into Russia’s western Kursk region on Tuesday morning in a shock attack and have advanced several kilometres, according to independent analysts.
Moscow’s national anti-terrorism committee said late Friday it was beginning counter-terror operations in the Belgorod, Kursk, and Bryansk regions in order to ensure the safety of Russians and suppress the threat of terrorist acts being carried out by the sabotage groups of the enemies.
Under Russian law, the military and security forces are given vast emergency powers during “counter-terror” operations.
Movement is restricted, phone calls can be monitored, vehicles can be seized, areas are declared no-go zones, checkpoints introduced, and security is tightened at key infrastructure sites.
The anti-terrorism committee said Kyiv had mounted an unprecedented attempt to destabilise the situation in a number of regions of our country.
It called Ukraine’s incursion a “terrorist attack” and said its troops had injured innocent civilians and destroyed residential buildings.
Ukrainian leaders have kept silence on the operation, and the US, Kyiv’s closest ally, said it was not informed of the plans in advance.
But President Volodymyr Zelensky has appeared to tout his forces’ early successes, saying earlier this week that Russia must “feel” the consequences of the full-scale offensive it has waged against Kyiv since February 2022.
