A missile strike has destroyed a Ukrainian command-and-control center in Russia’s Kursk Region, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said, releasing video of the strike. Ukrainian forces launched a large-scale incursion into the border region earlier this week.
In a statement on Saturday, the ministry said that an Iskander-M short-range ballistic missile system had carried out a strike on a previously reconnoitered command post of Ukraine’s 22nd Separate Mechanized Brigade not far from the border between the two nations.
“As a result, the command staff of the… brigade, 15 people in total, was eliminated,” the statement said, adding that “there will be no mercy.”
Drone footage released by the ministry shows what appears to be a cluster of several buildings in the middle of a heavily wooded area, with at least one Ukrainian armored vehicle also present in the area. One of the buildings is then hit by a powerful explosion, sending a plume of smoke into the air.
Iskander missiles can carry a payload of up to 700kg of explosives up to 500km and travel at hypersonic speeds. Russia has been using this weapon in recent weeks to strike staging areas used by Ukrainian forces, command and control centers, airfields, defense industrial facilities, and other military targets.
Kiev planned Kursk incursion long in advance – ex-defense ministerREAD MORE Kiev planned Kursk incursion long in advance – ex-defense minister The Ukrainian incursion into Kursk Region is Kiev’s largest assault on Russian territory since the outbreak of the conflict. While the Russian Defense Ministry initially said that the Ukrainian spearhead consisted of around 1,000 servicemen and dozens of armored vehicles, including some provided by the West, subsequent media reports suggested that the total force was at least several times larger and that some of Kiev’s elite units had been thrown into the thick of the fighting.
Moscow has denounced the raid as a provocation and has accused Kiev of targeting civilians. Ukrainian officials, meanwhile, have said that the purpose of the incursion is to instill fear in the Russian population and achieve a more advantageous position for eventual talks with Moscow.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the Ukrainian advance has been halted and that reserves had been redeployed to the region. It claims that Kiev has so far lost up to 1,100 troops and 140 armored vehicles in the area.
Kiev planned Kursk incursion long in advance – ex-defense minister
Taking control of Russian territory and holding on to it is not the aim of Kiev’s cross-border incursion into Kursk Region, former Ukrainian Defense Minister Andrey Zagorodnyuk, who now advises the government, has told the Financial Times.
Kiev planned the ongoing attack, which it launched earlier this week, long in advance, the British newspaper cited him as saying on Friday
The purpose of the Ukrainian offensive is not to control Russian territory “for long,” Zagorodnyuk said. “We do not need Russian land. We want them to fail on ours.”
It is also aimed at exposing Russia’s “weaknesses” and seizing the initiative in the conflict after months of Russian gains in Donbass and other areas, he stated.
The operation in Kursk Region also proves the ability of the Ukrainian military to conduct “new tactics of combined arms operation” which it learned from Western instructors, Zagorodnyuk, who was in charge of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry from August 2019 to March 2020, said.
On Tuesday, Ukraine launched its largest attack on Russian territory since the outbreak of the conflict between the neighboring states in February 2022. The Russian military said on Wednesday that the advance was halted, but Ukrainian troops remain in some areas of Kursk Region and continue attempting to advance.
The Kremlin has denounced the attack as a provocation and accused Ukrainian troops of indiscriminate attacks on civilians. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has called the incursion a “massed terrorist attack” aimed at demonstrating “at least some semblance of activity, amid the constant failures of the Ukrainian armed forces in the conflict.”
The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement on Saturday that over the past 24 hours, Ukrainian mobile groups were prevented from advancing deeper into Russian territory near the settlements of Ivashkovskoye, Malaya Loknya, and Olgovka.
Russian warplanes and artillery also hit Ukrainian troops in the areas of Nikolayevo-Daryino, Guevo, Lyubimovka, Zeleny Shlyakh, and Sverdlikovo, it added.
At least 15 foreign mercenaries fighting for Kiev were killed after their temporary deployment point was struck by a missile with a thermometric warhead, the statement read.
According to the ministry, Ukraine has already lost up to 1,120 servicemen and 140 armored vehicles, including 22 tanks, since the start of the incursion.
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