breakthrough of the border by the armed forces of ukraine in the kursk region of russia. what is the purpose of this operation, risks, possible consequences and details. this is the main topic of the current issue. let's discuss everything that is known as of now. my name is vlasta lazur. this is svoboda life. so, ukrainian troops entered the kursk region of russia and... established themselves in the border zone. first, the official positions of the parties: ukraine does not comment on the events in the kursk region, and russia accused ukraine of organizing an attack on its southern border and announced the transfer of reserves to repel the attack. well, that's it, if very briefly. now it is unofficial information, what is the difference, in particular, because it comes from various russian pro-war telegram channels, some of which are close to the ministry of defense of russia. so, they report that the ukrainian units have taken a number. villages in the suzhan district

of the kursk region, in particular mykolayevo-daryno, sverdlykovo and darino. to understand, for example, the village of darino is 4 km from the border. according to other data, the ukrainian military advanced to the western suburbs suzhi, goncharivka, it is 8 km from the border. it is also claimed that ukrainian troops tried to take control of the rylsk-sudzha highway. according to various estimates, the width of the front in the kursk region until the morning of august 7 was 10-11 km. this is what the city of suja looked like the day before, it is located 12 km from the border. it can be seen here that roads, buildings, and cars are damaged. how many ukrainian military can participate in this operation? i repeat once again, ukraine does not publish such data. however, according to russian pro-war information telegram-channels, tonight the armed forces of ukraine entered into battle up to two battalions advancing towards suja, one. again, for clarity, it

could be 400 people, well or more. well, the day before, this video, which shows two russian planes flying over the road and a burning car, went viral on the internet. according to deep state, the video was shot just on the eastern edge of suja. here, the planes are flying overhead, fighter jets, that's it. it lights up, there is a wheelbarrow, even a fire truck is driving, i understood, it is full here, and i must say that it this is not the first border breach from the ukrainian side, for example, last year similar raids took place with the participation of russian volunteer corps fighters, the nv publication with reference to a source in dzherela v gur reports that this time the rdk fighters are allegedly not taking part in this operation. ukrainian telegram channels also published from with

military men who, as it is claimed, were captured by the armed forces of ukraine during the fighting on the border of the kursk region, on the recordings of the interrogation of three men, who represent themselves as russian servicemen. russian edition the edition of the important history confirmed the identities of the military, two of them conscripts. it is also unknown how many russian soldiers could have been captured. for example, this video of the convoy of at least six prisoners appeared on the internet, russian telegram channels close to the ministry of defense of russia admit. that russian servicemen are on the staff, but again, there are no official confirmations. well , everything that is known, literally as of now, i will also report that today the head of the kremlin, vladimir putin, in connection with situation in the kursk region, he even convened a meeting, and it was a public, open meeting, where he gathered the heads of his departments and once again reported that, in fact, the russian side admitted that an attack was taking place on the kursk region, and moreover, closer to the evening, the head of the general '. burasimov said that

the advance of the armed forces in the border areas has been stopped. now i will not quote everything that was said in the russian general staff, but of course they reported on hundreds of units of ukrainian equipment destroyed there, on destroyed servicemen from the side of ukraine. i think there's no point in quoting it now, because we don't really know the other side's position. i will say once again that the russian-ukrainian side does not comment on this situation at all, well, but we will now discuss all this, at least the information that is known as of now. mykhailo zhirokhov, a military expert, joins our broadcast. mykhailo, i congratulate you. good evening. the main, you know, the main question that everyone who follows this situation probably has today. what is the purpose of armed forces forces of ukraine to make this border breakthrough in the kurdish region of russia. what do you think? well, here we can. to think anything, because

this goal can be one, there can be several, it can be military, it can generally be in the political plane. therefore , you can say a lot, but until there is no official position, it will all be, well , you know, driving, driving with your hands on some coffee grounds, well, i agree with you, but from the versions that i heard, well, or about what they say there military observers, for example, there is a version that this is being done in order to weaken the offensive in the donbass or there... on other areas of the front, there is a version that it is in order to have a stronger position in the negotiations, in which case ukraine will have control over certain russian territories there, you said that now there is no point in discussing what the goal is, because it can be different, so

what options are there in principle, well, from my point of view, the first goal, which military they have already performed this operation... that is the transfer of russian troops to donbas has already been recorded this night, they will arrive there in two days, but already in some directions this is already happening, our intelligence notes this. this is a real rollover. the second issue, which may be, is in the political plane, in the sense that after the summer of 23, our western allies, they are very... actually related to ukraine's ability to conduct offensive actions, that is, these summer, these problems with summer counteroffensive, they affected the attitude of western partners, and this operation, it can somehow put

everything in place. as for the seizure of, for example, the kursk eu, i am very skeptical, because firstly... it is still 60 km from the battle site, and secondly, there is no point in seizing it, if only to exchange it for zaporizhia, but you know that , such from such and such from some fantastic areas, and why is it from fantastic areas, as you say, because there are not enough resources, or because the partners simply will not allow it, or i don’t know, there is another reason, you understand, from a military point of view vision, we will stretch communications, this whole group. which advances, it needs constant fuel, constant ammunition, constant food, and the further we advance, the more it will stretch, and these lines of communication are stretched, they will become an object for strikes by russian aircraft, and

the russians have even more aircraft than enough, so it is necessary to understand what forces are being attacked, we cannot attack with five or five or ten brigades, we just don't have operational reserves, that is, these reserves are there, but they are quite limited. it seems to me that this breakthrough is radically different from all the previous ones in that it seems that this time the armed forces of ukraine are taking part in this operation, because previously russian volunteer battalions and corps took part in these operations, and ukrainian intelligence also openly communicated about this. and ukrainian. military and political leadership, they say, it is not us, it is the citizens of russia, which means that they have the right to come to their land. now we see that the rdk in this, well, is either not involved, or behind, or they don't have, let's say, leadership positions in this movement, and at least they

don't say anything about it, we asked them for a comment, why do you think this, this shift happened, and well first of all, the rdk fulfilled their duty... they, you remember, how they entered the belgorod region for several tens of kilometers, and the defense and fortification of the belgorod region turned out to be the same as in the kursk region, that is , it was such a touchstone for to understand what our military might face in the event a full-scale offensive, it was combat reconnaissance, so it had certain features, i mean a pr action, there were tons of content that they put out, but... it also had a purely military task, and they fulfilled their task 100%. we from the military command understand that what is against us is, firstly, mobilized, and secondly, that the fortification, it is built, well, roughly the same as we have in

the kharkiv region, you mean, bad, let’s say, not like that, not as powerful as, for example, zaporizhzhia, let's say so, i don't want to indulge in any evaluations judgment, then the question is, i understand, we have a lot of unknowns... moments here in this story, but from the fact that we see there various shots from drones that publish videos and photos that are published by ordinary local people there in in the kursk region, how far the ukrainian units have reached now, it is 8-10 km, what was in the morning, is it already more, now it is 25 km, 25 km, the latest russian telegram channels, they are talking about korinnivsk, it is 25 km from the front line, but there is a straight road, that is, it's just a march,

a throw, it's, well, i don't know, if it will be like that, it can be said that this is a blitzkrieg of the 1941 era, that is, units, motorized infantry units, units of airborne assault troops, they just go along the route, they do not storm populated areas, they do not storm any object. they go along the track, no one stops them, they come out, and there is nothing, nothing to stop them, the first line of defense was the military personnel, the second line of defense was akhmat, akhmat dispersed even earlier than the military personnel, and the military personnel, we saw the video published, again telegram channels, and ukrainian, in including, the ukrainian troops captured, as i understand it, some of the russian soldiers, they surrendered themselves, they surrendered themselves, because they have no... well, there is no point in fighting, when they saw the tanks, armored personnel carriers, they just simply surrendered

and that was it , this is such a normal story with the soldiers, akhmat's units scattered, you say? judging by this, that is, what can be said, that’s why we have foreign eyes working for us now, what a task, they want to show how bad the russian military command is, and that’s why they they publish content and... which allows us to draw certain conclusions, against the background of the fact that we have no official ukrainian resources or any content at all, this allows us to draw certain conclusions, but i can say once again that these conclusions can be, well are not 100% true, these are preliminary conclusions, of course , from the open information we have, but look, we already see statements from official russian sources on... for example, chief of the general staff gerasimo is already reporting to putin that the movement of the armed forces of ukraine

border areas are stopped, should we trust, are there any signs that would tell us that we should trust these reports or not? putin has created such a system that he is told to his face what he wants to hear, he will not be told what, what it is, that is, he is in some kind of information bubble, and everyone who... has such an opportunity to tell him some unpleasant things, he very quickly loses his position, and very often his life, that is why this system is built, it is now working against the russians, and this is gerasimo, when says that everything is stopped, tomorrow we will leave, the day after tomorrow we will already cross the border and go further to the sumy region, this is nothing more than an exaggeration, of course, in 3-4 days. the russians will raise their reserves, they have them, they will withdraw from donetsk for 3-4 days - this is

a long period of time, if you say that the armed forces of ukraine are just driving along the road, no one is stopping them, is it possible to get far or not? yes, wagner, if you remember, that year he showed that you can get to moscow if, if you go fast enough, but you you understand, this is an army structure, it is necessary to raise ammunition, fuel, we need, well... engineering machines, well, in the end, these soldiers need to be fed with something, so here is this offensive, it is fast, well, how can you say it correctly, but enough limited, that is, i understand, i have the last question, it is 70 km away, it seems, well, this is what i saw on the map, from the city of suja there is the city of kurchatov, in kurchatov there is aes, today i saw a lot of memes on this topic and he joked, saying that let the armed forces of ukraine reach the air force there... they will take it under their control, if without jokes and without memes, is it really possible to get there and do

you see that such a goal is worth it? well , look, 25 km were covered in two days, that is , in order to cover 60 km, it will take two 2.5, 2.5 days, that is, if the pace of the offensive is the same as it is now, i don’t see that , that the offensive can be accelerated, this is... the maximum that we can now with the forces and means that are advancing, there is probably still a moment, for example, if another strike is made, further north, or... somewhere else and this is still will stretch the russian forces, but i am not in the general staff for that to understand whether we have the strength for one more strike, and now for sure the last question, we are now, we will now talk in detail about the situation in the sumy region, but already now against the background of this operation or breakthrough or offensive in the kursk region in the sumy region announced an additional evacuation of the population, do

you expect that now in response russia will attack or bomb the sumy region? absolutely, they understand that somewhere there is a decision center, somewhere there is a command center that runs this operation, and they they will search for him, and where they will search, they will search in populated areas, how they will search, they will simply throw dozens of cabs at them, that is, their intelligence is not powerful enough to find a specific one, well, you will understand that we are accumulating reserves somewhere. these ammunitions are brought somewhere, they don't come off the wheels, somewhere, somewhere there are warehouses, some level there, i don't know, there is a battalion level there, a regimental level, that is, it is there somewhere, and the russians understand this, and they will now try to knock it out ballistics, all ballistics, it is from the kursk, voronezh regions and bryansk, it is drawn there, all the aviation is drawn there,

kabyb, because there are not so many of them, yesterday i spoke literally today in... even spoke, and they say that in donetsk direction , yesterday was the first day when they did not drop cabs at all, that is, the russians carry cab carriers , they have practically, well, not enough, so many, and they were withdrawn to kursk, they were withdrawn to kursk, and now literally four su-34s are constantly in the air and drop cables , thank you very much, mykhailo, thank you very much for for for analysis and for such analysis, mykhailo zhirokhov. military expert, we talked about the situation in the kursk region of russia. well , against the background of the border breach and fighting in the kursk region in the sumy region, as i already mentioned, which borders the kursk region, today they announced the mandatory evacuation of 23 settlements, this is a total of five communities of the sumy region, about this was reported today in the sumy ova, and

according to the head of the ova, it is about 600 people, among them 425 children who have to be evacuated, and the day before in sumy ovas reported that the ukrainian military shot down a russian helicopter and a ballistic missile over the region, i would like to remind you that last time the rdk fighters raided the belgorod region and the kursk region as well, it was in the spring . the so-called sanitary zone in kharkiv oblast and sumy oblast, and in the end russia began to intensively attack these regions, and what ended up being the re-occupation of certain areas of kharkiv oblast, which now from... is happening in sumy oblast, let's talk now, my colleague, nataliya kalinichenko, a journalist from bilopillya, bilopillya is sumyshchyna, joins our broadcast, natalia, i congratulate you, i congratulate you, good day, tell me, and especially for you, but tell me, please, what is happening now in sumy oblast, and we are especially interested in whether the situation has changed in any way over the past two days, since

the border breakthrough, so the situation in sumy oblast has changed, if we take the region as a whole, if we take ours. bilopolsky district, in fact, we are in such a situation, our bilopolsk community is already the second year, depending on the intensity of shelling, we have it periodically, it happens more, it happens less, here my colleague, well, he was talking about cabs, about the fact that cabs are flying to the som region, then the first cabs arrived to us on march 23, 2023, that is, we know what it is, what kind of weapon it is, how deadly and cruel this weapon is, and yesterday there were 10... cabs in the yunakiv community alone . in may , 10 cabs flew into our city in one day, it is terrible, it is scary, it is a destructive , very large force, and for two days we had constant anxiety, 24 hours, so i am today, i today i read the news of the sumy oblast that there was some kind of record-breaking air alert, it lasted for more than a day, and i

understand that this evacuation, which was announced by the local authorities from 23 settlements, again this... could be is it related to this breakthrough in the kursk region or not, or what do you think? yes, of course, the fact is that the evacuation, for example, in our bilopiv community was announced back in may, we have had a mandatory evacuation since may, because we experienced very heavy shelling in may, it's just the destruction of some villages, up to 10 villages were completely destroyed in our border community of bilopol, from large ones where 700 people lived to small ones where there were a few houses, therefore... this has been held in our community since may in any case and in some neighboring communities, others were added to our communities, where there is a great danger, completely evacuated, the evacuation of the capital was announced. vsk community, you remember when i understand, and the fact that the evacuation was announced today is something, some new settlements have been added, these are new settlements that border

exactly with yunativka, the khotyn community, this is where the most intense shelling is taking place today, where most of the people today are hit with kaba and other weapons, look, i also read today on the social media that they wrote about the fact that in sumy oblast the only checkpoint that was working stopped working, it is polotylivka-pokrovka on the border with russia , and this checkpoint was used by people who live and lived in the occupied territories, what do you know about it and what does it have to do with it related? well, we also learned about the fact that it stopped working from the news, but we know that not only people evacuated from the occupied territories of kherson, zaporizhzhya, donetsk regions through this checkpoint, but also through this checkpoint exchanged our military personnel , prisoners and... bodies were exchanged, and we know that people always came out, greeted with flags those people who were exchanged, it was such a whole ritual, procedure, and all, today, and

today it comes out, this point stopped working, just when, when the border breach occurred, you do you somehow connect these two events? because this checkpoint, it is not far from the city where the breakthrough took place, it is yunakovki, near suljiv, not far from tylovka, it seems to be the sulzhan district, therefore... it is dangerous, it is constant shelling, it is simply difficult and scary to go there, there are big there is constant shelling, people are sitting in basements and everything is being destroyed, roads, houses, houses, schools, hospitals, there is nothing there, bombs are being thrown and entire streets are being destroyed. natalya, thank you very much for joining in and talking us about the situation. nataliya kolinichenko, a journalist from bilopol', this is sumy region. we talked about the breakthrough of the border in the kursk region. affected the situation in the sumy region of ukraine. thank you. well, we will continue to discuss this topic. again, i will remind you once again that

we do not have official information from the ukrainian side regarding what is happening in the kursk region, but again, russian telegram channels close to the russian ministry of defense report that the armed forces of ukraine have captured pumping station of suja gas, and it is the only gas supply route to europe. what will this situation affect? consequences can be expected after that? volodymyr omelchenko, director of energy programs of the razumkov center, joins the broadcast. congratulations. congratulations, glory to ukraine. glory to heroes. and to begin with , please tell us what kind of gas pumping station this is, where did the gas go from there, and what can it ultimately affect? this is a gas measuring station at which gas volumes are measured, which means that they are transferred to ukraine for transit. and and also there and the compressor station is still there, that is, it is really now the only remaining gas station through which russian

gas enters, which goes in transit to slovakia and to moldova, in transit, in transit through ukraine, but no, allegedly, this transit has already been canceled, does it continue, no no, no, the contract is valid, the contract is valid, it expires only between naftogaz and gazprom, the contract expires only. it expires on december 31 of this year, so the contract is valid, and about 42 million cubic meters of natural gas is pumped, and of these 42 million cubic meters, 38 passes to slovakia and then to austria, the czech republic, and about 4-5 million cubic m2 goes to moldova, so this station is really important, and besides... you know that russia has destroyed one direction of gas supplies to us, that is, what direction is it from sakhranivka, through sakhranivka, and even

earlier through novopskov, that's why there is only one station left, well, i don't see any meaning, that is, to seize this station, yes, well, from the point of view of some kind, that is, benefit. of gas supplies, because this gas goes to the territory of ukraine and to europe anyway through ukraine, there is a contract, that is, i think that there was probably another military task here, most likely a task, well , for example, we heard that russia was preparing for a breakthrough in the sumy region, probably our armed forces played in anticipation, rather this, it is they who... are stretching the lines, the front line, that is, it has nothing to do, in my opinion , with the fact that ukraine wants to seize this very station, somehow to prevent gas supplies to

europe. because, because the contract is being fulfilled, ukraine cannot stop, well, it constantly demonstrated that even in spite of to the war at the request of the european union, at the request of slovakia, austria, the czech republic, the country does not stop this transit, but is it possible to clarify this, look, we probably do not know whether the armed forces of ukraine seized this station, it is now indirectly reported, russian sources who are close to official russian sources are reporting there, are there any... any indirect indications from your side that this station has been captured, well, i don't know, maybe you already see some monitoring data about gas pumping, maybe they already are published and you see there a change in prices, or any other changes that may indicate something is wrong with the distance? well, i think that it is most likely that russia will use this situation for the so-called ipso, that is, what does it mean? this means that they will be on for.

to press, to put pressure on our european partners and say, you see, ukraine seized the suja station, and we cannot pump sufficient volumes of gas, and on this, indeed, on the seventh today , gas supplies decreased by 7%, but this is not because ukraine there, allegedly captured, in fact in i have no information that ukraine seized this station, in my opinion, it did not cover anything, it's just that russia is disseminating this information in order to scare its partners and to increase gas prices in europe, and to to promote this topic that ukraine is bad, now prices will rise and we need to put pressure on ukraine so that they stop, it means to help ukraine, for example, not only to help, but also to put pressure on ukraine so that ukraine

with... rolled up this counterattack operation, to things, and there, if, for example, we imagine, gazprom will now announce, use this as an excuse and declare a force majeure and stop supplying gas to europe, this is a powerful tool for putting pressure on ukraine, well, you know that we are at war with russia, yes, that is, no, we did not attack, the aggressor is russia, so in principle, if they accept... they will lose much more than us, because ukraine earns from this transit, well, the income is somewhere around 800, about 800 million euros, well, there are also huge expenses, technological gas, operating costs, that is , there is almost no profit there, while gazprom earns annually, on this transit for gas supplies, on gas supplies, approximately

6 billion euros and for... gazprom, this is a critically important route in general, because gazprom , you know, it is now all in losses, it has to be compensated from the state budget, already this year it will be compensated for about 500 billion rubles, that is, it is a loss-making, deeply loss-making company, how much has the european market lost, as we know, and another loss this route, well, it will be a disaster, a complete disaster for gazprom, here we were talking with you, just 5 minutes ago reuters published the news that this morning the transit of gas through ukraine continued without disruptions, despite the confirmed, unconfirmed, or rather the news about the seizure of this suja gas measuring station, well, so far such news, well, absolutely, here i think that ukraine, the ukrainian armed forces, the political leadership have no purpose to seize this station, it is pure

army... an operation that is conditioned by the situation at the front and is conditioned by the fact that it is necessary to restrain the enemy from the point of view of his advance and the possibility of an attack in the north of ukraine, that is why i think that russia is specially fanning this situation through its forces, precisely for to scare european consumers by raising the price of gas, and what we have already said. thank you very much, volodymyr melchenko. director of energy programs of the razumkov center, we talked about the situation in the kursk region, where, according to unconfirmed data, the armed forces of ukraine allegedly seized a gas measuring station. thank you very much. well, we return to the kurt region, where the ukrainian armed forces are entrenched. let me remind you that ukraine does not officially confirm this information, but instead , vladimir putin has already reacted, he called the events in the kursk region a provocation by the armed forces, in the city of suja, kursk region, next to

which... the clash between the russians continues for the second day.