▲ A Ukrainian soldier returns to his country with a trophy tank after attacking Russian territory.Photo Ap
Juan Pablo Duch
Correspondent
The newspaper La Jornada
Friday, August 16, 2024, p. 27
Moscow. At the daily meeting of the Ukrainian military cabinet, the commander-in-chief of the army, Oleksandr Syrskyi, informed President Volodymyr Zelensky yesterday that the troops under his command have already occupied 82 settlements and an area of 1,150 square kilometers in the Kursk region of Russia.
He added that since the operation began (on August 6), As of today (Thursday), our army is positioned 35 kilometers from the border.and noted that In order to maintain law and order, as well as to ensure priority needs in the controlled territory, it was decided to create the first military command and appoint General Eduard Moskaliov as its head..
For her part, Irina Vereschuk, Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, reiterated that the government and the army of her nation They are working to open a humanitarian corridor so that Russian civilians living in the combat zone can, if they wish, be evacuated to the Sumy region of Ukraine.
A humanitarian corridor to the Russian Federation is possible, provided that Russia officially requests it. So far, it has not done so.the official said.
The Russian Ministry of Defense, in its daily report –and with a sort of template that always begins with “the Siever (North) army group… aviation and artillery fire thwarted…” and only changes the name of the localities–, indicated yesterday that it prevented Attempts to advance deeper into Russian territory of the Ukrainian units in the towns of Safonovka, Varvarovka, Shevtukhovka, Kauchuk, Alekseyevskaya and Matveyevka.
It should be noted that the first two settlements in the Korenevo district, Varvarovka and Safonovka, are located 25 and 29 kilometers from the border, respectively, according to independent media. The Russian military institution, without it being its purpose, confirmed that Ukrainian troops in that place advanced 2 kilometers in one day.
Meanwhile, yesterday in the Belgorod region the federal emergency regime and Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov offered in a meeting with Governor Viacheslav Gladkov that he will send reinforcements to protect Belgorod, also bordering Ukraine, in view of what is happening in neighbouring Kursk.
And he sent a reassuring message: The General Staff has already drawn up a specific plan, which is primarily about increasing the efficiency of troop command and providing additional forces and resources to be able to carry out the assigned tasks.Belousov said. The human rights commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament), Dmytro Lubinets, said yesterday that he had been in contact with his Russian counterpart, Tatiana Moskalkova, to propose an exchange of prisoners of war. The Russian representative did not make any statement on the matter, but the Ukrainian told the Ukrainian press that he hopes to reach an understanding.
Kremlin plane crashes in Siberia
Although it is not related to the armed conflict in Ukraine, Russia yesterday lost one of its most important aircraft for its capacity to carry atomic bombs to the United States, in theory the main enemy: a TU-22M3 strategic hypersonic bomber, which crashed while performing a regular flight in the Irkutsk region of Siberia, the Ministry of Defense confirmed, a technical failureafter social media posted images of the burning vehicle. All four crew members escaped unharmed after ejecting.