"No Policy Violation", U.S. Says, As Ukraine’s Army Surprises Russia With Move Across Border

The United States said on Wednesday that it hadn't noticed any policy violation regarding the use of U.S. weapons, as Ukraine reportedly launched an armored incursion into Russia’s lightly defended Kursk region in a surprise move that caused panic in Moscow and forced it to rush in additional troops, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.

"Ultimately, the decisions about how Ukraine conducts its military operations are decisions that Ukraine makes. Nothing has changed about our policy with respect to strikes across the border," State Department's spokesperson Matthew Miller told a daily briefing when responding to TURAN's questions.

Moscow said Wednesday morning that it has beefed up security in Kursk after Ukraine seized several villages and advanced several miles in two directions. Vladimir Putin was quick to decrie Ukraine’s incursion as a “large-scale provocation."

“I have seen the statements from the Russian government. It’s a little bit rich — them calling it a provocation given Russia violated Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty... and continues to illegally occupy Ukrainian territory” Miller told TURAN's correspondent.

"Nothing about our policy has changed, and with the actions that they are taking today, they’re not in violation of our policy," he emphasized.

Miller went on to add that Kyiv did not give Washington advance warning of its cross-border incursion into Kursk Oblast, which is "not unusual."

"It’s not unusual for the Ukrainians not to notify us of their exact tactics before they execute them. This is a war that they are conducting.  We provide them with equipment, we provide them with advice, but when it comes to the kind of day-by-day tactics that they carry out, the day-by-day strikes that they take, sometimes we’re in communication about them; sometimes we’re not.  And it’s appropriate for them to make those decisions," he explained.

According to the assessment of the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a research group based in Washington, Ukrainian forces have made confirmed advances up to 10 kilometers into Russia's Kursk Oblast amid continued mechanized offensive operations on Russian territory on August 7.

"The Kremlin's response to Ukrainian offensive activities in Kursk Oblast has so far been contradictory, as Russian officials are attempting to balance presenting the effort as a notable Ukrainian escalation with avoiding overstating its potential implications and risking domestic discontent," reads the ISW report.

Geolocated imagery posted on August 7 shows that Ukrainian forces captured over 40 Russian prisoners of war at the Sudzha checkpoint, the authors added.

Russian military bloggers Wednesday night depicted the situation in the Kursk region as more serious than the official accounts, with some suggesting that Ukraine had opened a new front.

TURAN also asked Miller about recent media reports of Russia's mistreatment of Ukrainian prisoners of war. "Russia has an obligation to abide by the Geneva Conventions when it comes to the treatment of prisoners of war," he replied.

"One of the things that we have seen throughout this conflict is Ukraine be able to engage in conversations – not directly with Russia, I believe, but through intermediaries – to be able to return Ukrainian prisoners of war. And those are obviously important," the spokesperson concluded.