Putin claims Ukraine tried to attack Kursk nuclear plant

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Vladimir Putin has claimed Ukraine tried to attack a nuclear power plant in Russia’s Kursk region overnight.
The Russian president made the claim in a meeting with senior officials on Thursday in which  Moscow’s response to Ukraine’s invasion of Russia’s border region was discussed.
“The enemy tried to strike the nuclear power plant at night, the International Atomic Energy Agency has been informed,” Putin said on Thursday.
Kursk’s governor Alexei Smirnov said that 133,190 people had left the border region, while Bryansk’s governor Alexander Bogomaz told Putin that an attempt by Ukraine to pierce its border had been repelled overnight.
Kyiv’s incursion into Kursk, which was launched more than two weeks ago, saw thousands of Ukrainian troops pierce Russia’s western border, catching Moscow by surprise.
Ukraine did not immediately respond to Putin’s claim. 
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Ukrainian military officers have reportedly blamed new recruits for the losses Kyiv’s forces have experienced in Donetsk. 
Some new recruits have refused to fire at the enemy and struggled to carry out basic combat movements, the Associated Press reported on Thursday. 
Several new recruits have walked away from their posts altogether, the officers claimed. 
It won’t have escaped even the most casual observer that Russian tyrant Vladamir Putin is having a disastrous summer, writes Robert Clark.
The highly successful Ukrainian incursion into the Russian territory of Kursk has cast doubt on his ability to maintain the control which is essential to his grip on power.
Now that Ukrainian forces hold more than 1,250 square kilometres of Russian territory – a psychologically damaging situation which has not occurred since the Second World War – Putin’s worries will only have been magnified by successful drone strikes overnight and this morning on Moscow itself. 
Read more here.
Ukraine’s special forces have released video footage which they claim shows pontoon bridges being destroyed with US-made missiles in Kursk.
The footage shows Himars hitting the pontoon bridge, which Kyiv said was destroyed along with crucial Russian equipment.
While Washington has not commented on the strike, Kyiv acknowledged for the first time on Wednesday that US-made weapons had been used in its Kursk incursion.
“Where are the Russian pontoons ‘disappearing [to]’ in the Kursk Region? Special Operations Forces operators, together with units of the Defense Forces of Ukraine, are effectively destroying them,” Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces said.
Russia scrambled to build the pontoons after Ukraine destroyed three crucial bridges along the River Seym last weekend near the settlements of Glushkovo, Zvan, and Karyzh.
Ukraine’s forces are continuing to inflict “tangible losses” in Russia’s Kursk region, the country’s staff of armed forces said on Thursday. 
“Defence forces of Ukraine continue operations in the Kursk direction,” they said. 
“Our soldiers are actively inflicting tangible losses in live force and equipment to the occupation forces.”
According to Ukrainian forces, the unmanned “Lyut 2.0” provides fire support to infantry and conducting reconnaissance in high-risk areas. 
It is equipped with a machine gun, has an operational range of up to 20 kilometres, and can operate alone for three days.
Vladimir Putin has held a meeting with senior officials about Ukraine’s ongoing invasion of Russia’s Kursk region, which was launched on Aug 6.
“I have gathered you in order to discuss the situation that is developing at the moment in the border regions of Russia,” the Russian president said at the opening of the meeting on Thursday. 
Denis Manturov, the first deputy prime minister, said that Russia was continuing to assess the damage to agriculture and industry in the border regions.
Alexei Smirnov, Kursk’s acting governor, added that 133,190 people had left or been evacuated from his region. 
Ukraine has seen no increase in military activity around its border with Belarus since Minsk announced it was sending additional forces to the area, Kyiv said on Thursday.
“We do not see any movement directly near our border – neither equipment nor personnel,” Andriy Demchenko from Ukraine’s border guard service told national TV.
Russian forces captured another village in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, Moscow claimed on Thursday.
The defence ministry said its forces had captured the village of Mezhove, located between Avdiivka, captured in February, and the logistics hub of Pokrovsk.
Russian troops have been advancing towards Pokrovsk for several months as it aims to capture the entire Donetsk region. 
Narendra Modi has said “nothing can be resolved on the battlefield” ahead of his visit to Ukraine on Friday. 
The Indian prime minister arrived in Warsaw, Poland, on Wednesday as part of his three-day trip to eastern Europe. 
India has been a close ally of Russia but also has ties to the West and hopes to play a part in bringing the conflict in Ukraine to an end. 
A military base hit by Ukraine in an overnight drone strike hosts fuel and glide bombs, a security source in Kyiv said on Thursday.
Ukraine conducted the drone attack on the Marinovka military airfield in the southern Russian region of Volgograd on Thursday.
The source told Reuters the attack was part of a campaign on Russian airfields that are used by warplanes to conduct regular attacks on targets in Ukraine.
Volodymyr Zelensky said he went on Thursday to Sumy in Ukraine, which borders Russia’s Kursk region.
The Ukrainian president said during his visit that another Kursk settlement had been taken by Kyiv’s forces. 
“Additionally, another settlement in the Kursk region is now under Ukrainian control, and we have replenished the exchange fund,” the Ukrainian president said.
The visit came more than two weeks after Ukraine launched its invasion of Russia’s border region. 
I visited the border area of the Sumy region and held a meeting with Commander-in-Chief Syrskyi and the Head of the Sumy Regional Military Administration.The Commander-in-Chief reported on the operational situation across all active combat zones, with a particular focus on the… pic.twitter.com/GvaCEAUBBj
The US-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (Himars) was a key introduction to the war for the Ukrainians. 
The long-range rocket system allowed Ukraine to fire missiles into Russia, enabling multiple counter-offensives. 
In case you missed it, here is Patrick Blower’s Telegraph cartoon from Wednesday.
A military airbase in southern Russia was hit in a fresh Ukrainian drone strike overnight, causing damage to several aircraft and surrounding buildings.
Andrei Bocharov, the regional governor in Volgograd, confirmed the attack took place in the Marinovka village, where a military airbase is located.
Footage showed a fire raging at the Marinovka Air Base, while buildings in Krasnooktyabrskiy Rayon, Volgograd, are understood to have been damaged in Russia’s air defence response.
The attack came after Moscow was targeted on Wednesday in what the city’s mayor described as “one of the largest ever” Ukrainian drone strikes since the start of the war in February 2022.
Russia then moved to close two more airports in Russia’s Far North amid fears of further Ukrainian drone attacks.
Germany has denied any involvement in helping Ukraine launch its daring invasion of Russia’s Kursk region, insisting it was planned “very secretly”. 
Kyiv caught both its allies and Russia off-guard when it launched the incursion on Aug 6. 
“Ukraine prepared its military operation in the Kursk region very secretly and without any feedback, which is certainly due to the situation,” Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, told reporters during his visit to Moldova, which neighbours Ukraine.
A Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance team were prevented from piercing the border in the western Bryansk region, Russia said on Thursday. 
Alexander Bogomaz, the Bryansk governor, said the attempted invasion took place in the Klimovo district which borders Ukraine’s Chernihiv region and is about 240km (150 miles) from where Ukraine’s forces are stationed in Kursk. 
He also warned that Ukrainian forces were regrouping for another attack in Kursk ,where Kyiv launched its daring counter-offensive more than two weeks ago. 
Ukraine is preparing for a barrage of Russian drone attacks ahead of its independence day, the US embassy in Kyiv said on Thursday. 
Saturday will mark 33 years of independence from the Soviet Union. 
Russian authorities in Kursk have begun installing concrete shelters to help protect civilians as Ukraine continues its invasion, the acting regional governor said on Thursday.
Governor Alexei Smirnov said shelters were being built in crowded places, including in 60 bus stations. 
Similar shelters will be placed in two other towns, he added.
Ukraine stepped up its counter-offensive this week with a series of drone strikes inside Russia.
Moscow was targeted on Wednesday, while on Thursday Volgograd, a military base, was damaged in an overnight attack.
Moscow has used state media and propaganda to convince Russian citizens that the presence of Ukrainian forces on its soil is the “new normal”, repurposing messaging from the Covid pandemic.
Kremlin officials reportedly said they believed Kyiv’s invasion of Kursk, which was launched more than two weeks ago, will last for several months, according to the Institute for the Study of War.
Russian government sources reportedly told Meduza, a Russian outlet based in Latvia, that the estimate is “quite optimistic – if everything goes well”.
“During a shock, and this was certainly a shock, there are always jumps (in public alarm), then people get used to it, and everything settles down,” a source told Meduza.
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