Russia attacks Kiev with missiles, surrounds all Ukrainian soldiers in Kursk

(CLO) Russian troops are surrounding Ukrainian soldiers in the Kursk region, while increasing airstrikes on Ukraine in the first major missile attack since the US suspended military aid and intelligence sharing with Kiev.

Ukraine's air force said Russia fired a barrage of 67 missiles and 194 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the overnight attack, adding that it had shot down 34 missiles and 100 UAVs.

Regional officials from the northeastern city of Kharkiv to the western city of Ternopil reported damage to energy and other infrastructure. "Once again, energy and gas infrastructure in many regions of Ukraine has come under heavy missile and drone fire," Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galuschenko said.

Russian troops are stepping up their attacks on Ukraine. Photo: Alexey Konovalov

Russia targets Ukrainian cities and towns far from the frontline every night with drones, but Friday’s attack was the first large-scale assault since the US suspended military and intelligence aid this week.

Meanwhile, the fighting in Russia’s Kursk region is also very difficult for Ukraine. Thousands of Ukrainian troops who flooded into Russia’s Kursk region last summer are now virtually surrounded by Russian forces there, a major blow to Kiev, which had hoped to use its presence there as leverage over Moscow in any peace talks.

Open source maps show that Ukraine's situation at Kursk has deteriorated significantly over the past three days, with Russia nearly cutting its forces in half and cutting them off from their main supply lines.

Russia is encircling and dividing (shown in white and red areas) the Ukrainian-occupied territories (yellow) in Russia's Kursk region. Map image: X

Ukraine's precarious situation comes after the US suspended intelligence sharing with Kiev and raised the possibility that its forces could be forced to retreat to Ukraine with difficulty on all sides, even at the risk of being captured or destroyed.

An open-source map from Deep State, a reputable Ukrainian military blog, showed on Friday that about three-quarters of Ukrainian forces inside Russia were now almost completely surrounded.

The connection was severed between the main force and the remaining Ukrainian logistics and reinforcements stationed near the Russian border by a land corridor about 1 km long and less than 500 meters wide.

Deep State said late Thursday that Russian forces had advanced close to the nearby settlement of Kuryilovka. In a statement released Friday, it also said Russian forces were even pressing Ukrainian positions on the border with the Sumy region.

“It is worth noting that the enemy has an advantage in UAVs, both for reconnaissance and attack. The most commonly used type is the FPV drone,” Deep State said.

"The Russian armed forces have advanced deep (up to 4 km deep) and actually reached the alternative supply route to Sudzha (the route the enemy is using because it cannot use the main road)," said Yuri Podolyak, an influential Russian war blogger, on his Telegram channel.

Ukraine's General Staff said on Friday that the country's armed forces had repelled 32 Russian attacks on the Kursk region over the past day.

Hoang Huy (according to Deep State, Reuters, Yahoo)

Source: https://www.congluan.vn/nga-bao-vay-linh-ukraine-o-kursk-tang-cuong-khong-kich-sau-khi-my-cat-vien-tro-cho-kiev-post337558.html