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Russia evacuates district in Kursk

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Russian commander: one village taken back from Ukraine

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Ukrainian forces are pushing along the Kursk front

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Ukraine says its advance is 'going well'

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Intense fighting on other parts of front

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Russia shows U.S.-made Stryker being destroyed in Russia

(Adds Russia pushing out Ukrainian forces from one village,

description of battle from Russian commander in paragraphs 1,

4-11, official visits region, paragraph 15,)

By Guy Faulconbridge and Maxim Rodionov

MOSCOW, Aug 15 (Reuters) - A senior Russian commander

said on Thursday that Ukrainian forces had been pushed out of

one village in Russia's border region but that Kyiv's forces

were still probing along the front more than nine days since the

lightning incursion into Russia.

The biggest foreign attack on sovereign Russian territory

since World War Two unfurled on Aug. 6 when thousands of

Ukrainian troops smashed through Russia's western border in an

embarrassment for the Russian top military brass.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday

that his forces had advanced a few kilometers and that the goal

of replenishing an 'exchange fund' of prisoners of war was being

achieved. One Ukrainian official said Kyiv was carving out a

buffer zone to protect its population against attack.

Major General Apti Alaudinov, who commands Chechnya's Akhmat

special forces who are fighting in Kursk, said that Russian

forces had forced out Ukraine from Martynovka about 18 km (11

miles) from the border.

"We have burned everything that moves, everything that we

have been able to find," Alaudinov told Russian state television

from Kursk region, reminding viewers of Russia's defeat of

Napoleon's 1812 invasion of Russia.

Alaudinov, a close ally of Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov,

said that Ukraine was sending in more forces into the Russian

region but that the shift in resources was weakening Ukrainian

forces at other parts of the front.

"The enemy is pushing, he is trying to get through from

everywhere, push through," Alaudinov said, admitting that

initiative was still with Ukraine. "But every day the enemy's

forces are melting."

The Russian town of Sudzha, a transhipment hub for Russian

natural gas flowing to Europe via Ukraine, was not under full

Ukrainian control, he said. Ukraine on Wednesday said it was

fully under Ukrainian control.

Alaudinov also spoke of the chaotic battlefield situation in

the region when his forces arrived shortly after the incursion,

with forests teaming with Ukrainian forces and a lack of clarity

on whose forces were where.

Ukraine's incursion appeared aimed at forcing Moscow to slow

its advance along the rest of the front inside Ukraine, though

the Russian defence ministry also reported intense battles along

the Ukraine front and said that its troops had taken better

positions at several points.

Ukraine said there was no sign Russian military pressure was

receding along the eastern front inside its borders on Thursday

and reported the heaviest fighting in weeks near Pokrovsk.

GOING INTO RUSSIA

Supported by swarms of drones, heavy artillery and tanks,

Ukrainian units have since carved out a sliver of the world's

biggest nuclear power and battles were ongoing along a front

about 18 km (11 miles) inside Russian territory on Thursday.

Kursk's acting governor, Alexei Smirnov, said that the

Glushkov district, which has a population of 20,000, was being

evacuated. At least 200,000 people have so far been evacuated

from the border regions, according to Russian data.

Kremlin deputy chief of staff, Sergei Kiriyenko, visited

Kurchatov, the town servicing the Kursk nuclear power station

which is just 40 km from the fighting.

While the Ukrainian attack has embarrassed Moscow, revealed

the weakness of its border defences and changed the public

narrative of the war, Russian officials said what they cast as a

Ukrainian "invasion" would not change the course of the war.

Russia, which invaded Ukraine in 2022, has been advancing

for most of the year along the 1000-km (620-mile) front in

Ukraine and has a vast numerical superiority. It controls 18% of

Ukraine.

The Ukrainian incursion into Russia has yielded its biggest

battlefield gains since 2022.

FIGHTING IN RUSSIA

The West, which backs Ukraine and has said it will not allow

President Vladimir Putin to win the war, has repeatedly said it

knew nothing of the Ukrainian plans to attack Russia. Russian

officials say they do not believe such statements.

"Of course they are involved," Russian lawmaker Maria Butina

told Reuters. "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."

Putin said on Monday that Ukraine "with the help of its

Western masters" was aiming to improve Kyiv's negotiating

position ahead of possible peace talks.

Russia's defence ministry published footage which it said

showed a Russian drone destroying a U.S.-made Stryker armoured

combat vehicle in the Kursk region. Russian officials have

warned that if Western weapons were used on Russian territory,

then Moscow would consider that a grave escalation.

By bringing the war to Russia, Zelenskiy faces the risk of

weakening Kyiv's defences along the front in Ukraine while

Russia has already sent in thousands of reserves in a bid to

expel the Ukrainian soldiers.

And if Ukraine wants to hold the Russian territory it has

taken, it will need to build a sophisticated logistics operation

to support its forces, military analysts said.