Ukrainian forces descend on Belgorod in fresh attempt to break Russian border

The Telegraph:  Ukraine launched a cross-border raid into the Russian region of Belgorod, sparking panic in pro-Kremlin media on Tuesday.

Ukrainian troops supported by armoured vehicles attacked the Nekhoteyevka border checkpoint early in the morning, according to Russian military bloggers.

Kyiv has already seized 500 square miles of the neighbouring Kursk region in an invasion launched earlier this month.

The size of the Ukrainian force attempting a breakthrough in Belgorod was unclear on Tuesday night, with Russian officials saying the border was “under control”.

Mash, a Telegram news channel with purported links to Russian law enforcement, reported that “up to 200 Ukrainian soldiers in several infantry-fighting vehicles” were met by volleys of Russian artillery fire as they approached Nekhoteyevka.

Russian state broadcaster RT quoted Voyenna Khronika, another military Telegram channel, as saying the size of the operation was “about the same in terms of personnel and numbers as in the first minutes of the Kursk incursion”.

The pro-Kremlin Romanov blog claimed Kyiv’s forces were beaten back into a forested area west of the checkpoint.

“There were clashes with Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance groups and Russian artillery is working,” a fourth blogger, Operation Z, wrote online. “No large-scale attempts to break through have been recorded.”

Vyacheslav Gladkov, Belgorod’s regional governor, wrote on the Telegram messaging app: “There is information that Ukraine is attempting to break through the border of Belgorod Oblast.

“According to the Russian defence ministry, the situation on the border remains difficult but under control.”

Neither military nor political officials in Kyiv commented on the latest cross-border raid.

‘It’s a classic offensive operation’

Western military experts have said that one major benefit of Ukraine’s Kursk operation is that it will unsettle Russia across the entire border, as Kyiv has proved that it can invade anywhere at short notice.

“It’s a classic offensive operation,” said Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a former British tank commander. “Attack weakness, give the Russians lots to think about and make difficult decisions with limited resource

“The Russians will have to look south [towards Belgorod], putting them off balance, while they’re trying to reinforce Kursk. Ukraine launching such attacks means they understand manoeuvre warfare.

“Currently, Ukraine’s objective seems to grab as much Russian land as possible to have a better negotiating position, as well as to divert Russian forces from eastern Ukraine and create a buffer zone,” Natia Seskuria, an associate fellow at RUSI, added.

“Cross-border attacks into the Belgorod region seem to be a part of this strategy.”

Oleksandr Syrskyi, Kyiv’s top general, told a news conference on Tuesday, that his forces had captured 500 square miles of Kursk, forcing Russia to deploy 30,000 troops to the area.

Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, told the same event the invasion of Kursk was one of “the stages to end the war”, in plans he would shortly present US presidential candidates, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.

“Kursk Oblast is part of our plan for Ukraine’s victory,” the Ukrainian president said. “There are some things I cannot discuss... Kursk Oblast is one of the plan’s directions, with some already being implemented.

“The second direction concerns Ukraine’s strategic position in the global security infrastructure. The third strategy is to use diplomatic means to coerce Russia into ending the war. The fourth direction is economic.”

Kyiv held a peace summit in Switzerland in June that brokered a statement signed by more than 80 international governments endorsing three points of Mr Zelensky’s 10-point peace plan.

Ukrainian officials are planning a second summit with Russian representatives present in the coming months.

The Ukrainian president also confirmed that the army had successfully tested a homemade ballistic missile for the first time. Although Mr Zelensky did not release details of the test launch, Ukrainian engineers have been working on the development of a short-range ballistic missile to replace its Soviet-era Tochka-U system since 2014.

The programme was accelerated after Russia launched its first invasion of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas and illegally annexed Crimea in the same year.

The so-called Hrim-2 missile system, or Sapsan, was designed to hit targets at a range of about 300 miles and be fired from a truck-mounted launcher.

”The successful test is good news, but we shouldn’t read too much into it. The Sapsan SRBM is likely still several months, if not years, away from reaching initial operational capability,” said Fabian Hoffmann, a missile technology doctoral research fellow at the University of Oslo.

“Nevertheless, as others and I have pointed out, if Ukraine is prohibited from using Western long-range strike weapons against targets inside Russia, it’s essential for Ukraine to develop its own higher-payload and higher-velocity missile systems.”