Ukraine Attempts to Open Another Front Inside Russia

Ukrainian troops crossed over into Russia's Bryansk region on Wednesday, according to a Russian official and military bloggers, as Ukraine advances further into neighboring Kursk.

A prominent Russian military blogger said late on Wednesday that Ukrainian forces had attacked around the settlement of Zabrama, just over the border of Ukraine's northern Chernihiv region, at approximately 7 p.m. local time. Zabrama sits northeast of Kyiv.

Russian border guards and Chechen special forces fighters clashed with "at least 20 servicemen," the blogger wrote, claiming that Ukrainian forces then "retreated."

Bryansk's regional governor, Alexander Bogomaz, said on Wednesday that a Ukrainian "sabotage and reconnaissance group" had attempted to break through into the Klimovsky district of Bryansk, but that the operation was "thwarted" by Russia's federal security service, the FSB, and the military.

Zabrama sits in the southeast of the Klimovsky district.

"Currently, the situation at the site of the clash has been stabilized," Bogomaz said.

Newsweek reached out to the Ukrainian defense ministry for comment.

Ukraine is more than two weeks into its surprise push into Kursk, with thousands of troops involved in the most significant advance into internationally recognized Russian territory of the war.

Ukraine's army chief, Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, said earlier this week that Kyiv controlled nearly 100 settlements in Kursk, and just shy of 500 square miles of territory. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday that another Kursk settlement had been captured by Ukraine, adding he had visited the border area in Sumy along with Syrskyi.

Senior Russian officials have repeatedly said its troops, under a "counterterrorism operation" led by the federal security service, the FSB, have halted Ukrainian gains. Russian President Vladimir Putin has vowed a "worthy response" to the incursion that has been a boon to Ukrainian morale after months of grinding Russian advances in the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine.

The Kremlin's statements indicating that Moscow has staunched Ukraine's gains have been contradicted by a number of Russia's influential military bloggers, Ukrainian sources and Western analysis.

"Russia has really struggled to respond, and you continue to see some Ukrainian advances," Pentagon press secretary Major General Pat Ryder told reporters on Tuesday.

Although clashes have been concentrated in Kursk, Russia's neighboring border areas have felt the reverberations of Ukraine's cross-border operations in the area.

The Belgorod region has declared a state of federal emergency, and the border regions have consistently reported Ukrainian drone strikes.

Russia's defense ministry said early on Thursday morning that its air defenses had intercepted 28 uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) overnight, including one drone over Bryansk, another over Kursk, four in Belgorod, plus two flying over the Voronezh region bordering Belgorod.

The Economist reported earlier this week that Syrskyi had considered a "strike in Bryansk region" as well as targeting Kursk in an effort to force Russia to pull troops away from the eastern frontlines and strengthen Ukraine's negotiating position.

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