Putin scrambles as Ukraine advances troops along 'dormant front' in border security operation

Russian President Vladimir Putin is scrambling to counter Ukrainian offensives amid a weeklong invasion in Russia’s Kursk region in what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy argued Monday night was a border security operation. 

"Our operations are purely a security matter for Ukraine – the liberation of the border area from the Russian military," Zelenskyy said in an overnight address.

Zelenskyy’s comments were among the first he has made publicly acknowledging Ukraine’s invasion and came just hours after Ukrainian General Oleksandr Syrskyi provided an update on the operation in Kursk in which he said Ukrainian troops have captured nearly 400 square miles of Russian territory.

A Ukrainian tank crew takes a break while operating a Soviet-made T-72 tank in the Sumy region, near the border with Russia on Aug. 12, 2024 amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine's military chief, Oleksandr Syrsky, told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a video posted on Aug. 12, 2024 that his troops now control about 1,000 square kilometres of Russian territory and are continuing "offensive operations." (Photo by ROMAN PILIPEY/AFP via Getty Images)

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Moscow called for a federal state of emergency in Kursk late last week as Ukrainian troops, tanks and drones flooded the border, prompting hundreds of thousands of Russian civilians to evacuate. 

Zelenskyy said that since the beginning of June, Ukraine’s Sumy oblast – which borders Russia’s Kursk region – has come under heavy fire with more than 2,000 rounds of drone, artillery and mortar strikes having been launched from Kursk alone.

"It is only fair to destroy Russian terrorists where they are, where they launch their strikes from," the Ukrainian president said. 

Reports surfaced this week claiming that Ukrainian forces have begun digging trenches in the Kursk region in a sign that Kyiv intends to stay operational in Russia for the long-term – a strategy some believe is an attempt to draw Russian forces away from the frontlines.

Fox News Digital has not been able to confirm whether Ukrainian troops have begun digging their own trenches, but pro-Russian military bloggers on Tuesday signaled that Putin is doing what he can to ensure that the fighting that has reached his homeland does not become a part of his protracted war with Ukraine.

An infographic titled "New front in Russian-Ukrainian war: Kursk" created in Ankara, Turkiye, on Aug. 8, 2024. On Aug. 6, the Ukrainian army launched a full-scale assault on Russia's southern Kursk region, creating a new front in the conflict. (Photo by Murat Usubali/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Russian bloggers on Telegram have claimed that Putin has appointed a new security official to oversee ending Ukraine’s operation in Kursk, former bodyguard to the Kremlin chief and allegedly one of the key players in the 2014 annexation of Crimea, Alexei Dyumin. 

Fox News Digital could not independently verify the appointment of Dyumin as overseer of Kursk operations, but expert analyst on the Ukraine-Russian war and team lead of the Institute for the Study of War’s Russia Team and Geospatial Intelligence Team, George Barros, said Ukraine’s push into Kursk is forcing Moscow to re-evaluate its war strategy.

FIGHTING RAGES INSIDE RUSSIAN TERRITORY AFTER UKRAINE'S SURPRISE INCURSION

"The Ukrainian operation in Kursk Oblast [has forced] a decision-point on the Kremlin and the Russian military command about whether to view the thousand-kilometer-long international border with northeastern Ukraine as a legitimate frontline that Russia must defend, instead of a dormant area of the theater, as they have treated it since Fall 2022," he told Fox News Digital.

Russina President Vladimir Putin is reported to have appointed his former bodyguard and current presidential aide Alexei Dyumin - seen by some as his chosen successor - to supervise an "anti-terrorism operation" in Kursk region and end the Ukrainian incursion. (Photo provided by East2West)

"Russia has spent considerable resources to build fortifications along the international border area but has not allocated the manpower and material to significantly man and defend those fortifications," Barros added.

Barros argued that Ukraine’s successful cross-border invasion has forced Russia to not only re-evaluate its border security, but also how it will continue its force posture in Ukraine.

"This conclusion will narrow the flexibility Russia has enjoyed in committing manpower and material to its ongoing offensive efforts in Ukraine, and the Russian military command will have to consider the requirements for border defense when determining what resources it can allocate to future large-scale offensive and defensive efforts in Ukraine," Barros said.

Ukraine’s offensive in Russia has left the international community wondering if Kyiv has reshaped how and where the more than two-year-long war will continue to be fought. Though Zelenksyy has argued that shifting the war to Putin’s doorstep is the only way forward in ending the conflict.

UKRAINE BREACHES RUSSIAN BORDER NEAR MAJOR GAS TRANSMISSION HUB, DEFENSE OFFICIALS SAY

Ukrainian servicemen operate a Soviet-made T-72 tank in the Sumy region, near the border with Russia, on Aug. 12, 2024 amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine launched a surprise offensive into the Russian border region of Kursk on Aug. 6, 2024, capturing over two dozen towns and villages in the most significant cross-border attack on Russian soil since World War II. (Photo by ROMAN PILIPEY/AFP via Getty Images)

"Russia must be forced into peace if Putin wants to continue waging war so badly," he said Monday night.

Zelenskyy has repeatedly called on the U.S. and its international allies to allow Kyiv to use long-range weapons to hit Russian military targets and logistics hubs to counter the barrage of missile fire it has endured on a daily basis. However, Washington has repeatedly denied approval for "long-range" operations.

The Biden administration in May reversed its complete opposition to inter-border attacks in Russia and said Ukraine could use U.S. weapons to hit strategic targets to stop attacks targeting Ukraine’s Kharkiv region from Russia’s Belgorod oblast. 

However, according to reports over the last week, Kyiv has targeted at least six western Russian regions on or near the Ukrainian border including the Bryansk, Oryol, Kursk, Lipestk, Belgorod and Voronezh oblasts in a series of drone strikes. 

The Pentagon last week confirmed that Ukraine’s current operations fall within Washington’s policy when it comes to Kyiv’s permitted use of U.S. provided weapons for "cross border" attacks. 

The Biden administration has repeatedly said it does not approve the use of long-range strikes in Russia, though it has refused to outline what range is considered permissible for Ukraine to continue hitting. 

A satellite image shows the damaged Sudzha border crossing in Oleshnya, Kursk Region on Aug. 6, 2024, obtained by Reuters on Aug. 8, 2024. (Reuters)

However, Zelenskyy continues to press Washington for more, warning that the bans on long-range targets are prolonging the war.

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"We see how useful this can be for bringing peace closer," he said.

"We need appropriate permissions from our partners to use long-range weapons," Zelenskyy urged. "This is something that can significantly advance the just end of this war, as well as save thousands of Ukrainian lives from Russian terror."