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Russia still battling Ukrainian troops in Kursk

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Ukraine may have control of Sudzha - bloggers

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Putin: this is a major Ukrainian provocation

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Ukraine remains silent about situation

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White House: we had no prior knowledge of attack

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Medvedev: Russia should take all of Ukraine

By Guy Faulconbridge

MOSCOW, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Russian forces were battling

Ukrainian troops for a third day on Thursday after they smashed

through the Russian border in the Kursk region, an audacious

attack on the world's biggest nuclear power that has forced

Moscow to call in reserves.

In one of the biggest Ukrainian attacks on Russia of the

two-year war, around 1,000 Ukrainian troops rammed through the

Russian border in the early hours of Aug. 6 with tanks and

armoured vehicles, covered in the air by swarms of drones and

pounding artillery, according to Russian officials.

Ukrainian forces swept through the fields and forests of the

border towards the north of the border town of Sudzha, the last

operational trans-shipping point for Russian natural gas to

Europe via Ukraine.

President Vladimir Putin cast the attack as a "major

provocation". The White House said the United States - Ukraine's

biggest backer - had no prior knowledge of the attack and would

seek more details from Kyiv.

Russia's most senior general, chief of general staff, Valery

Gerasimov, told Putin on Wednesday that the Ukrainian offensive

had been halted in the border area.

But multiple pro-Russian military bloggers said the battles

continued into Thursday and that civilians were being evacuated.

"Sudzha is basically lost to us. And this is an important

logistics hub," said Yuri Podolyaka, a popular Ukrainian-born

pro-Russian military blogger, adding that Ukrainian forces were

pushing north towards Lgov.

"In general, the situation is difficult and continues to

deteriorate, despite the fact that the pace of the Ukrainian

offensive has noticeably dropped."

The Ukrainian army has remained silent on the Kursk

offensive. Some Russian bloggers criticised the state of border

defence in the Kursk region, saying that it had been far too

easy for Ukrainian forces to slice through them.

CRITICAL JUNCTURE

The battles around Sudzha come at a crucial juncture in the

conflict, the biggest land war in Europe since World War Two.

Kyiv is concerned that U.S. support could drop off if Republican

Donald Trump wins the November presidential election.

Trump has said he would end the war, and both Russia and

Ukraine are keen to gain the strongest possible bargaining

position on the battlefield.

Ukraine wants to pin down Russian forces, which control 18%

of its territory, though the strategic significance of the

border offensive was not immediately clear.

Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said the Ukrainian

attack was an attempt to force Russia to divert resources from

the front and to show the West that Ukraine could still fight.

As a result of the Kursk attack, Medvedev said, Russia

should expand its war aims to include taking all of Ukraine.

"From this moment on, the SVO (Special Military Operation)

should acquire an openly extraterritorial character," Medvedev

said, adding that Russian forces should go to Odesa, Kharkiv,

Dnipro, Mykolayiv, Kyiv "and beyond".

"We will stop only when we consider it acceptable and

profitable for ourselves."

Gas was still flowing through Sudzha via the

Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhhorod pipeline which carried about 14.65

billion cubic metres of gas in 2023, about half of Russia's gas

exports to Europe.

Russia's National Guard said it had beefed up security

around the Kursk nuclear power station, which lies about 60 km

northeast of the town.