Editor's note: The latest articles on Ukraine's incursion into Kursk Oblast can be found here.
Apti Alaudinov, the commander of the Chechen Akhmat unit fighting for Russia, said in a video on Aug. 8 that Ukrainian forces had advanced around 10 kilometers into Kursk Oblast as of Aug. 7 in a rare admission.
"The situation is not irreversible, nothing supernatural happened... Yes, our people died, that's a fact. The enemy has entered several settlements," said Alaudinov, a close ally of Chechen dictator Ramzan Kadyrov and an official at the Russian Defense Ministry, in a video published by the Russian independent outlet Agentstvo.
Alaudinov became the first Russian commander to acknowledge losses since Ukraine launched a cross-border incursion into Kursk Oblast on Aug. 6. Despite Moscow claiming repeatedly that the Ukrainian advance has been halted, the fighting continues.
The commander did not elaborate on the number of the supposed losses.
A shorter version of the video was shared on Alaudinov's personal Telegram channel, where the comment about losses was cut.
The Chechen commander said that Ukrainian forces "advanced well into our territory, about 10 kilometers." The U.S.-based think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW) gave a similar estimate on Aug. 7 based on geolocated footage.
Kyiv has so far maintained a policy of silence, but President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Aug. 8 that "Russia brought war to our land, and it should feel what it has done." He did not directly mention the incursion into the Kursk region.
Kateryna Hodunova
Kursk Oblast lies on the border with Ukraine's Sumy Oblast, which has been experiencing daily attacks since Russian troops were pushed out of the oblast and back across the border in April 2022.
The appearance of Chechen special forces in Kursk Oblast was reported as early as April, and their presence was later confirmed by Kadyrov himself, Agentstvo wrote.
Alaudinov claimed that his forces were unable to stop the Ukrainian advance because Kyiv's troops bypassed key strongholds. In turn, Russian "milblogger" Yuri Kotenok claimed that Chechen forces were deployed in the area of hostilities but fled soon after the Ukrainian attack.
The Kyiv Independent could not verify the claims.
Russia said that as of Aug. 8, battles are ongoing in the Sudzhansky (Sudzha) and Korenevsky (Korenevo) border districts of Kursk Oblast. Sudzha is located less than 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the border with Ukraine, while the city of Kursk lies 85 kilometers (53 miles) to the northeast of Sudzha.
Francis Farrell
(Updated: )
