Russia retaliates against a 'terrorist' incursion in Kursk

Ukraine's deep strikes on Russian military targets and its three-week-old ground offensive within Russian territory seem to be producing both military and political outcomes over the past week, News.Az reports citing Al Jazeera.

Russia was reported to be moving its aircraft back from airfields near the Ukrainian border while glide bomb attacks inside Ukraine were reported to have decreased. Evidence that Moscow was scrambling elite units from Ukraine to defend home turf also mounted during the week.

An unnamed White House official told the Politico news website that “90 percent of the planes that launch glide bombs” against Ukrainian front-line positions had been moved back inside Russia.

The independent analysis website Frontelligence agreed that “between the second half of June and mid-July, Russian forces relocated many valuable assets away from the Ukrainian border,” including planes and helicopters.

Ukrainian Colonel Vitaly Sarantsev told a joint news telethon broadcast by Ukrainian channels that the Kursk offensive had greatly reduced Russia’s use of aviation against northeastern Ukraine.

“We felt relief in tactical aviation,” he said on Sunday. “The enemy has significantly reduced its use in our direction. If in previous periods we had 30 to 50 antiaircraft missiles per day only [in the Sumy region], then yesterday the enemy used air strikes twice, using four antiaircraft missiles and 11 unguided air missiles.”

Units operating in hotly contested Chasiv Yar in the eastern region of Donetsk have also reported a drop in glide bombs this month.

Vadym Mysnyk, a spokesman for the Siversk tactical group, said: “It is a sign that we are thinning out their air force and hitting airfields, and we have pushed the enemy away from the border a little.”

News.Az