What Ukraine's Kursk incursion looked like by 8 August 2024

What did Ukraine's push into Russia amount to by 8 August 2024? Two days after the incursion into Kursk Oblast began on 6 August, reports from that day pointed to an operation that was widening, and to a political decision to own it.

Fire and ground movement

On 8 August 2024, acting Governor of Kursk Oblast Alexei Smirnov and the Russian Ministry of Defence both said Ukraine had launched twelve rockets and 14 drones into Russia. That figure came from the Russian side, and it described long-range fire rather than ground action.

The ground element was reported separately. Ukrainian troops and tanks entered the town of Sudzha, and local residents were forced to flee. Large explosions were also reported near the town of Rylsk, where videos on social media appeared to show a destroyed column of military vehicles.

A public acknowledgement

The most significant development may have been political. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appeared to confirm that he had ordered a major cross-border operation inside Russia. He said that Russia had brought war to Ukrainian land and that it should feel what it had done. His wording linked the operation to the wider war rather than presenting it as an isolated raid.

The wider front

The operation unfolded alongside fighting in Ukraine itself. On 6 August, the same day the Kursk incursion began, Russia claimed to have captured the village of Tymofiivka in Donetsk Oblast. The two reports show combat continuing on both sides of the border at once.

What the day showed

The reports from 8 August 2024 showed three things: a combined use of missiles, drones and ground forces; population movement from at least one Russian town; and a Ukrainian leadership prepared to acknowledge the operation. How far the incursion would go, and what it would achieve, was not yet established on that date.