UKRAINE’S incursion into Russia’s borderline region of Kursk was planned with the participation of NATO and Western special services, and was prompted by Kiev’s realisation of its imminent collapse, Russian presidential aide Nikolay Patrushev said on Friday.
‘It was the West who brought the criminal junta to power in Ukraine. NATO countries sent weapons and military instructors to Ukraine, they continue to provide them with intelligence data and they control actions of neo-Nazi groups,’ he said in an interview with the Izvestia daily.
‘The operation in the Kursk Region was also planned with the participation of NATO and Western special services.
‘This criminal undertaking was prompted by the neo-Nazi Kiev regime’s realisation of its looming imminent collapse,’ the official added.
Patrushev dismissed the US Department of State’s claims of non-involvement into the matter.
‘It’s common for the United States to say one thing and do just the opposite. Without their participation and direct endorsement, Kiev would have never dared to set its foot on the Russian territory,’ he said.
Ukrainian forces started a major attack on the Kursk Region on August 6. Missile attack warnings have been issued repeatedly in the region since then, and the government declared a federal-level emergency there.
Most residents were temporarily resettled from the border areas and are now out of harm’s way, the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said.
More than 720 people have been evacuated over the past day alone, according to the ministry.
Western military trainers were in charge of planning the attack on the Kursk Region, captured Ukrainian serviceman Sergey Bochenko said in a video provided by the Russian Defence Ministry.
Bochenko was part of an infantry anti-tank rocket launcher crew of the Ukrainian army’s 11th separate rifle battalion.
He was mobilised in August, 2022 and stationed near an airfield in the Nikolayev Region. He was taken prisoner in Russia’s borderline Kursk Region.
‘They handed me a summons, I went to a military commissariat. They took me directly from there, didn’t even let me go home to grab my things,’ Bochenko said.
He said: ‘The platoon commander arrived and said that in 45 minutes we are to enter the Kursk Region. At first, he didn’t say why, then he did.
‘After the assault and mechanised units entered, we were to guard roads, bridges and facilities. I heard from our command that they planned it with Western instructors; they were in charge.
‘I ran into them on the battlefield. They were speaking a foreign language,’ he added.
The Ukrainian POW noted that they were forced to participate in the attack on the Kursk Region.
He said:‘Many of our guys ran away. Those who got wind of it, many of them ran away. Later, the rest could not leave. There is no motivation.
‘It’s more like we were forced to stay. Issued a one-way ticket. Given dry rations for a couple of days. There was no water or normal food,’ he added.
Bochenko also told of large numbers of destroyed hardware and servicemen he saw once he and his fellow servicemen crossed the border into the Kursk Region.
He said: ‘A lot of ambulances were heading back. Defeat is inevitable. In the best-case scenario, we will be driven out. Tons of people were sacrificed without any plan. As they say, “flying by the seat of their pants”.
‘We followed whatever Western instructors ordered us to do.
‘We could not understand why we were entering the territory of a foreign country. It was scary. Politicians dragged us into this,’ the Ukrainian POW said.
Additionally, the POW noted that he heard from his comrades that Ukrainian troops were involved in looting and the poor treatment of local residents.
‘Atrocities were frequent,’ he added. The prisoner specified that he has not been home for around a year and that he ‘is being treated like cattle’.
‘I don’t want to fight. I would like to address my comrades and everyone fighting on the Ukrainian side. Guys, stop it! This is not our war,’ he concluded.
According to the Russian Defence Ministry, Kiev has already lost up to 2,640 troops, 37 tanks, 32 armoured personnel carriers since the beginning of the hostilities on the Kursk direction.
The operation on elimination of Ukrainian troops continues.
The crews of Mi-28NM combat helicopters destroyed massed Ukrainian manpower and military equipment by Vikhr missiles in an overnight strike in the borderline Kursk Region, Russia’s Defence Ministry reported on Friday.
The ministry also uploaded a video showing the destruction of Ukrainian troops and military hardware in the Kursk area.
The ministry said in a statement: ‘Army aviation crews flying Mi-28NM helicopters delivered an overnight strike by air-launched weapons against massed manpower, armoured and military motor vehicles of the Ukrainian army in the borderline Kursk Region.
‘The strike was delivered by Vikhr missiles against reconnoitered targets. According to reconnaissance reports, all the designated targets were successfully destroyed.’
A Russian Lancet loitering munition wiped out a Kozak armoured combat vehicle of the Ukrainian army in the borderline Kursk Region, Russia’s Defence Ministry reported on Friday.
‘The Defence Ministry of Russia uploaded a video showing the destruction of a Kozak armoured fighting vehicle of the Ukrainian army by a Lancet loitering munition in the borderline Kursk Region,’ the ministry said in a statement.
A reconnaissance unit of Russia’s Battlegroup North uncovered a Ukrainian armoured combat vehicle in the Kursk area, the ministry said.
‘The uncovered target was destroyed by a Lancet loitering munition,’ the ministry said.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian armed forces attacked six districts of the Belgorod Region with 105 munitions over the past 24 hours, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on his Telegram channel on Friday.
In the Shebekino District, 55 munitions were fired during ten shelling attacks and nine drone strikes. One of the UAVs was shot down in the town of Shebekino.
‘In the settlements of Krasnoye, Leninsky, Murom, Nezhegol, Novaya Tavolzhanka, Sereda, and the farming communities of Balki and Pankov one civilian was wounded,’ he wrote, adding that seven cars, two apartment houses, three private residences, an administrative building on the territory of an agricultural enterprise, and a power line were damaged.
The Krasnoyaruzhsky District was attacked with seven munitions and two drones.
Two private houses and a public facility were damaged, two cars were completely burned.
In the Valuysky District, five drones were fired at three settlements, two houses were damaged. Shrapnel struck equipment at an agricultural enterprise.
Eight shells and five drones were fired at the Borisovsky and Volokonovsky districts. No aftermath occurred.
Gladkov reported: ‘In the Grayvoronsky District, the villages of Gorkovsky, Bezymeno, Dronovka, Dunayka and Poroz were attacked by five drones and 24 munitions during four shelling attacks.
‘Two private houses, two cars and a building were damaged. Five civilians were wounded,’ Gladkov added.
According to the governor, 11 munitions and two drones were fired at the Belgorod District, one car was damaged.
The Ukrainian command has been transferring frontline medics and volunteers, including foreign ones, who can provide medical assistance to soldiers, from the Kharkov Region to the Sumy Region, military expert Andrey Marochko told TASS.
‘They have been moving combat medics and volunteer organisations, including foreign ones, that can give medical assistance to Ukrainian militants to help out medics from units deployed to the Sumy Region,’ Marochko said.
He suggested that the move comes as Kiev was not prepared for heavy ‘sanitary and irretrievable losses’ when it planned its attack on the Kursk Region.
Amid a lack of medics in the Kharkov area, ‘irretrievable losses’ have been rising in Ukraine’s 57th motorised, 92nd assault and 36th marine brigades, Marochko explained.
- Russia’s Battlegroup Dnepr has conducted a massive strike on the Ukrainian military’s communication systems on the right bank of the Dnieper River in the Kherson Region, Governor Vladimir Saldo said.
He wrote on Telegram: ‘Management tools play a huge role in military activities these days, which is why they are a priority target for our operators.
‘In the Kakhovka area, the drone teams of an Arctic brigade detected several antennas and transponders that the enemy was using to operate its unmanned aerial vehicles and destroyed them with FPV drones.’
Saldo pointed out that Russian paratroopers had used quadcopters loaded with explosives to wipe out a large number of Starlink antennas on the right bank of the Dnieper.
He said: ‘Enemy troops were hiding them in partially destroyed buildings but they failed to escape the watchful eyes of Russian air reconnaissance.
‘Ukrainian militants used the items that were destroyed to operate drones terrorising civilians on the left bank.
‘Our fighters expect that the intensity of enemy air attacks will decline after these strikes,’ the regional governor added.
