Thousands of Ukrainian troops make incursion into Russia

By Stefan J. Bos 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has acknowledged that Ukrainian forces are fighting in Russia’s Kursk region.

Russia has imposed a sweeping security regime in three border regions as battles entered their sixth day. At the same time, Belarus has sent more troops to its border with Ukraine, accusing Kyiv of violating its airspace.

Yet Russian authorities have acknowledged that tens of thousands of people were forced to evacuate as Russian troops appeared ill-prepared for the onslaught.

Footage shows what appears to be a line of Russian military trucks on fire in the area. The video was apparently recorded on the E38 highway in the Russian town of Oktyabr’skoe, more than 20 miles (36 kilometers) from the border with Ukraine. 

Moscow says it has used a thermobaric bomb, also known as a vacuum bomb, against Ukrainian forces as part of what it calls a "counter-terrorism" operation to retaliate against Ukraine's shock incursion into Kursk.

The pressure from the bomb's blast is capable of vaporizing human bodies.

It is not the first time Moscow is reported to have deployed such weapons, as Ukrainian officials alleged they were being used in the invasion just weeks after it began in February 2022.

Using vacuum bombs is not a breach of international law, but targeting civilians with them is.

Additionally, Kyiv was attacked overnight. Ukrainian authorities said a 35-year-old man and his four-year-old son were killed in a Russian drone and missile barrage.

Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said the tragedy happened while fragments were falling on a residential area in Kyiv’s suburban Brovary district. They are the latest among the hundreds of thousands of people who have been killed and injured since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.