Ukraine offensive against Russia continues as thousands evacuate Kursk region  BBC News - video Dailymotion

Jam Asad

Russian officials said they have opened 400 temporary shelters across the country after Ukraine's cross-border offensive.   Ukraine's military said it now controls 1000 sq km of Russian territory, a week into its incursion into the border region of Kursk.    Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has said the war "is coming home" to Russia.   But Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has accused Ukraine of "committing crimes" and said Kyiv would receive what he called a "worthy response”.   For more news, analysis and features visit: www.bbc.com/news   #Russia #Ukraine #BBCNews

Transcript

00:00Ukraine and Russia have been attacking each other overnight, a week into Ukraine's incursion

00:06into the Russian border region of Kursk.

00:08The defence ministry in Moscow says its air defence units have destroyed 12 drones over

00:13Kursk and one each over Belgorod and Voroshniy.

00:17Ukraine's military says it shot down 30 Russian drones and two missiles.

00:21Russian war bloggers report continuing battles in Kursk as well.

00:24They say Kiev's forces are trying to expand their control but are being met by reinforcements

00:29sent by the Kremlin.

00:31Thousands of people have been evacuated from Russian towns and cities as the Ukrainian

00:34troops advance.

00:36Ukrainian troops, highlighted here in yellow, are reportedly as deep as 32 kilometres inside

00:43Russia.

00:44Ukraine's plan seems to be to draw Russian forces away from the front line in Ukraine,

00:48shown here in red, where Moscow has been making slow but steady gains.

00:53Let's speak now to Dr Patrick Burry, former infantry captain in the British Army, former

00:58NATO analyst and a defence expert at the University of Bath.

01:02Always good to have you with us here on the BBC.

01:04We've just had a statement coming out of Ukraine saying they're not interested in keeping this

01:08territory in the Kursk region.

01:11So I wonder what their intention is, what's going to happen now?

01:14Yeah, that is really interesting because we kind of got a reading from some top Ukrainian

01:22officials about the operational objectives and they were, as you mentioned there in your

01:27to draw forces away from the front line in Donetsk, where the Ukrainians are under real

01:32pressure.

01:33We've had some reports of that, but it's unclear whether that's been successful.

01:37The second one is obviously to deliver a morale boost to the Ukrainian armed forces, especially

01:41the army, who've been under a lot of pressure for the last year, and the nation.

01:44I think we can say we've done that already, in the short term at least.

01:48And the final one was to bring the war to Russia, basically to show that the war can

01:52be brought to Russian territory and then destabilize as a result of that, the Kremlin.

01:57I think that's been done to a degree, again, in the short term.

02:00But the longer term strategic objective looked like, were they going to try to hold some

02:05ground here in case they're forced to negotiations, especially under a potential Trump president?

02:11And an operation like this would have taken months to prepare.

02:13It's not the kind of thing you do off the back of a cuff, and especially the way it's

02:17been executed, it's been executed very well.

02:21If you rewind a few months, that Trump presidency was more likely than potentially it is now.

02:27It looks like a high stakes move and a high risk.

02:32So I'm kind of surprised at this, where they're actually coming out and saying, well, we're

02:36not going to take any territory.

02:37I thought a more likely outcome might be that they've tried to take at least some, but further

02:41back into the pocket, the salient that they've created.

02:46And whether or not they will continue attacking as well, whether they're just going to stick

02:50with what they've got so far or keep pushing on.

02:54Yeah, the early days of these exploitations and breakthroughs essentially are where you

02:59get the most momentum, you have the initiative, there's chaos in the enemy and they're trying

03:02to react. As it goes on, you run into more problems in terms of your own sustainment.

03:08How do you how do you sustain this over the long run?

03:11The command and control and also the risk then of kind of getting overexposed and being

03:15cut off, especially if you're racing down roads towards towns, et cetera.

03:19So over time, I would have expected, I think a good few of us looking at this closely would

03:23have expected that the Russian sort of overmatching forces in the area over time as

03:29they can mobilise them and get them there would stabilise, first of all, the line and

03:33then start to attrict the Ukrainian forces and then potentially reduce the pocket.

03:39But that will take time, I think.

03:40I think it's the most likely course of action at the moment.

03:43But if the Ukrainians at this point that you raised there about them saying they don't

03:46want to cover territory to go in like this with this amount of elite forces, you know,

03:52well-kitted out Ukrainian brigades and then try to withdraw in contact is pretty

04:00difficult from a military perspective.

04:02But, you know, this is one of the most difficult things to do is withdraw in contact.

04:05So if that is what their aims are, it's just like a big raid and they're going to pull

04:10back. It would make sense because they want to preserve their forces and they've had the

04:13political shock of doing it.

04:15It's a bloody difficult thing to do.

04:18We have that coming into us, Patrick, on just one news agency, on AFP, quoting a

04:23Ukrainian ministry and another line that they have just fed through as well.

04:28The sooner that Russia agrees a just peace, the sooner these incursion raids will stop,

04:35which gives us this motivation for why they have done it, obviously.

04:39But we're now also seeing President Putin come out yesterday saying there's a major

04:43provocation report saying he's absolutely furious about this.

04:46You have to wonder what the Russian response will be now, what the potential is of what

04:51he could do there.

04:53Well, I think the one thing is expected is that the Russians may bombard Ukrainian

04:57civilian infrastructure to increase the cost of this to them.

05:00Yeah, I think that would be expected.

05:02And I think the second thing that is, of course, is moving forces to deal with this.

05:05They've already combined the FSB, which is the internal security, with the military to

05:09get better command and control and brought in a raft of restrictions in the area to

05:15basically lock it down and have better command and control of that.

05:19I would have to see what about this new statement.

05:21You know, maybe it's also might be trying to muddy the waters and catch the, you know,

05:24Putin came out yesterday and said they're clearly trying to take territory for

05:27negotiations. Maybe it's a response to that.

05:30We'll have to see. Maybe the Ukrainians just want to muddy the waters and make it

05:33more difficult to ascertain the real goals here.

05:36One thing, one of the takeaways is this, is that Ukraine has proved in areas away from

05:41the front line where Russia has persistent intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance,

05:45so basically drones, oversight, it's very difficult to do anything without being

05:49spotted. In areas away from that, they've been able to mass concentrate their forces

05:54and break through fairly easily.

05:56And they could do that again.

05:58It's not saying that they have an inexhaustible bunch of forces here, but they

06:02certainly have proven the ability to pick somewhere and break through.

06:07And that will be in the back of the Kremlin's minds in the future, because it

06:10basically means you're going to have to harden the defences across that border if

06:14you really want to stop this happening again.

06:16Patrick, very good to get your thoughts.

06:17And as soon as we have more from Kyiv, we will certainly bring it to you and continue

06:21updating you on that story.

Ukraine offensive against Russia continues as thousands evacuate Kursk region BBC News

Category

Transcript

Recommended