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Ukraine attacks Russia with 117 drones, Russia says

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Zelenskiy: Ukraine is going deeper into Russia

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Biden: incursion 'a real dilemma for Putin'

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Russia fighting intense battles in Kursk, bloggers

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claims control of 74 settlements in Kursk

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Russia says it halted advance of Kyiv's troops

(Recasts paragraph 1)

By Guy Faulconbridge and Lidia Kelly

MOSCOW, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Ukraine pounded Russian

regions with missiles and drones on Wednesday as Kyiv said it

was advancing deeper in the biggest foreign incursion into

Russia for decades, which the White House said posed a "real

dilemma" for President Vladimir Putin.

Thousands of Ukrainian troops rammed through the Russian

border in the early hours of Aug. 6 into Russia's Western Kursk

region in what Putin said was a major provocation that was aimed

at gaining a stronger hand in possible future ceasefire talks.

In an embarrassment for Russia, Ukraine carved out a slice

of Kursk and though Putin said the Russian army would push out

the Ukrainian troops, intense battles have so far failed to

expel them.

Russia said on Wednesday that it had destroyed 117 Ukrainian

drones in Russia overnight, mostly in the Kursk, Voronezh and

Belgorod and Nizhny Novgorod regions. It said missiles had also

been shot down and showed Sukhoi Su-34 bombers pounding

Ukrainian positions in Kursk.

Russian commanders had said that the front in Kursk had

stabilised, though Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said

his forces were continuing to advance there and ordered his

generals to develop the next "key steps" in the operation.

U.S. President Joe Biden said that U.S. officials were in

constant touch with Ukraine over the invasion of Russia, which

he said had "created a real dilemma" for Putin, who ordered

thousands of troops into Ukraine in 2022.

The White House said Ukraine did not provide advance notice

of its incursion and the United States had no involvement in the

operation, though Russian officials have suggested Ukraine's

Western backers must have known of the attack.

A U.S. official said the goal of Ukraine's Kursk incursion

appeared to be to force Russia to pull troops out of Ukraine to

defend Russian territory against the cross-border assault.

The Ukrainian attack on Russia, the biggest by a foreign

force since World War Two, has dramatically changed the

narrative around the war. Russia had been advancing since the

failure of Ukraine's 2023 counteroffensive to make any major

gains against Moscow's forces.

RUSSIA ON DEFENSIVE

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 and to slow the advance

of Russian forces.

But in a sign the attack is hardening the Kremlin's

position, Putin questioned what negotiations there could be with

an enemy he accused of firing indiscriminately at Russian

civilians and nuclear facilities.

Russian officials say Ukraine is trying to show its Western

backers that it can still muster major military operations just

as pressure mounts on both Kyiv and Moscow to agree to talk

about halting the war.

By bringing the war to Russia, Ukraine has forced nearly

200,000 Russians to evacuate border regions.

The governor of Russia's border region of Belgorod,

Vyacheslav Gladkov, declared a regionwide state of emergency on

Wednesday, citing continued attacks by Ukrainian forces.

"The situation in the Belgorod region continues to be

extremely difficult and tense," Gladkov said in a video posted

on the Telegram messaging app.

Daily shelling by the Ukrainian armed forces had destroyed

houses, killing and wounding civilians, he added.

The offensive brings risks for Kyiv: Ukraine may leave other

parts of the front exposed by dedicating forces to fighting in

Russian sovereign territory. Russia controls 18% of Ukrainian

territory and has been advancing in recent months.

Ukraine has claimed it controls at least 1,000 sq km (386

square miles) of Russia, more than double what Moscow's figures

indicate. Reuters was not able to independently verify the

battlefield situation.

A Russian military blogger close to the defence ministry who

goes by the name "Rybar" said on the Telegram messaging app that

Ukrainian forces were attacking in several areas at once.

Russian troops were "pinning down" Kyiv soldiers, striking their

armoury, while reinforcements were arriving.

(Writing by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Raju

Gopalakrishnan, Miral Fahmy and Jamie Freed)