Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said his country’s forces have taken full control of the strategic Russian town of Sudzha in the Kursk region in their incursion into Russian territory.
Zelenskyy also said on Thursday that a military commander’s office is being set up in the town, which had a prewar population of around 5,000 people.
Sudzha holds a measuring station for Russian natural gas that flows through Ukrainian pipelines to Europe.
Russia did not immediately respond to Zelenskyy’s statement, but its defence ministry said earlier Thursday that Russian forces had blocked attempts to take several other communities.
On Wednesday, Russian officials had also denied that Ukraine captured the town.
“There are units from the Russian Defense Ministry, too, in Sudzha now, as the enemy is in and around certain parts of the town. Active fighting has been taking place daily there. The enemy cannot claim full control of Sudzha because they [Ukrainian troops] do not actually control it,” Major-General Apty Alaudinov was quoted as saying by TASS news agency.
Earlier in the day, Kursk acting Governor Alexei Smirnov ordered the evacuation of the Glushkovo region, about 45km (28 miles) northwest of Sudzha, as Ukraine’s daring incursion entered its second week.
The evacuation order suggests Ukrainian forces are gradually advancing toward the area. Authorities say more than 120,000 residents in the Kursk region have already been moved.
At a facility receiving evacuees, Tatyana Anikeyeva told of her flight from the fighting. “We were rushing from Sudzha … We hid in the bushes. Volunteers were handing out water, food, bread to people on the go. The sound of the cannonade continued without any break. The house was shaking,” she told Russian state television.
Russia also declared a federal-level state of emergency in the Belgorod region. A regional-level state of emergency had been declared a day earlier in Belgorod, and the change in status suggests officials believe the situation is worsening and hampering the region’s ability to deliver aid.
Ukraine’s General Oleksandr Syrskii declared that Ukrainian forces have taken 1,000 square km (about 390 square miles) of the Kursk region.
Speaking to reporters at the United Nations on Wednesday, Russia’s Deputy UN Ambassador Dmitry Polyansky dismissed Syrskii’s claim.
“What’s happening in Kursk is the incursion of terrorist sabotage groups, so there is no front line as such,” Polyansky said. “There is an incursion because there are forests that are very difficult to control.”
Reporting from Moscow, Al Jazeera’s Dorsa Jabbari said different narratives are emerging from both sides of the conflict.
“The Ukrainian officials say one thing and the Russian Defence Ministry [puts] out statements to the contrary,” Jabbari said.
“But certainly the question everybody here is asking is: What happens next? What is the main objective of this operation that’s been launched by Ukraine into Russia? What is clear is that the Russian military is preparing for the worst.”
US White House spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Thursday that he cannot speak to Ukraine’s objectives, but he added that Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to have “some level of concern” about the Ukrainian offensive in the Kursk region.
“We have seen some Russian units being redirected from operations in and around Ukraine to the Kursk area,” he said.
Washington has supplied Ukraine with tens of billions of dollars in military aid to deter the Russian invasion.
