Ukraine Battalions Advancing '6 Miles per Day' Inside Russia

Ukrainian forces are continuing to fight with Moscow's troops miles inside Russian territory in the Kursk region, according to reports by military bloggers amid conflicting accounts of the extent of Kyiv's progress in the surprise incursion.

The Russian Defense Ministry insisted on Thursday that its troops were engaging with Ukrainian troops in the border districts of the southwest Russian region, where Kyiv's forces crossed into two and a half days earlier.

The ministry said that "the enemy has been prevented from advancing." This echoed an earlier statement by Valery Gerasimov, chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, that Ukrainian military's advance deep into the region had been stopped.

Acting deputy governor of the Kursk region, Andrei Belostotsky, said Ukrainian troops have "not advanced a single meter" and were retreating with the defeat of enemy equipment and combat forces "actively underway."

However, pro-Moscow milbloggers have given a more unvarnished view of Ukraine's operation than officials statements carried by state media.

Yegor Guzenko wrote on Telegram that Ukraine had captured the town of Sudzha and was now moving with heavy equipment towards Rylsk, which is about 40 miles northeast.

Another milblogger, Yuriy Podolyaka, said that there are many Ukrainian troops in Sudzha that he described as "lost." Both reports were carried by the independent outlet Important Stories.

The Institute for the Study of War, a U.S.-based think tank, said that as of Wednesday, Ukrainian troops had advanced as much as 6 miles. But the Two Majors Telegram channel said that clashes were taking place in the villages of Ivnitsa and Anastasyevka up to 26 kilometers (15 miles) from the border with Ukraine.

While not independently verified, if confirmed, the location means that in the first two and a half days of the incursion, Ukrainian forces have moved about 6 miles on average per day.

"The Armed Forces of Ukraine have launched a up to 25K, or small NATO Corps sized, incursion into the Kursk Oblast that is moving between 7 & 10 km a day," Trent Telenko posted on X, formerly Twitter.

Newsweek has contacted the Ukrainian and Russian defense ministries for comment.

Kyiv has largely refrained from commenting on the operation, which comes as Russia ramps up attacks in Ukraine's Donetsk Oblast. But this is Ukraine's largest cross border incursion since the start of the war and could draw Russian reserves to the area, potentially weakening Moscow's offensive operations in the Donetsk region.

However, some analysts have warned that it could risk stretching outmanned Ukrainian troops further along the front line.

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