As I described here, Ukraine's incursion into Russia's Kursk region clearly caught the Russian military by surprise. As of today, Ukraine claims it has seized 1,000 square kilometers of Russian territory. This has resulted in more than 100,000 Russians being evacuated from the area.

Ukraine’s top military commander says his forces now control 1,000 square kilometers (386 square miles) of Russia’s neighboring Kursk region, the first time a Ukrainian military official has publicly commented on the gains of the lightning incursion that has embarrassed the Kremlin.

Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi made the statement in a video posted Monday to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Telegram channel. In the video, he briefed the president on the front-line situation...

Acting Kursk Gov. Alexei Smirnov reported to Putin that Ukrainian forces had pushed 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) into the Kursk region across a 40-kilometer (25-mile) front and currently control 28 Russian settlements.

Smirnov said 12 civilians have been killed and 121 others, including 10 children, have been wounded in the operation. About 121,000 people have been evacuated or left the areas affected by fighting on their own, he said.

Today, President Putin held a security meeting during which he gave a speech about the goals of the Ukrainian incursion. [Translated by Google translate.]

It is now becoming clear why the Kiev regime refused our proposals to return to a peaceful settlement plan, as well as the proposals of interested and neutral mediators.

Apparently, the enemy, with the help of its Western masters, is carrying out their will, and the West is fighting us with the hands of Ukrainians – so, apparently, the enemy is striving to improve its negotiating positions in the future. But what kind of negotiations can we talk about with people who indiscriminately strike at civilians, at civilian infrastructure, or try to create threats to nuclear power facilities? What can we even talk about with them?...

And finally, another of the enemy's obvious goals is to sow discord, discord in our society, to intimidate people, to destroy the unity, cohesion of Russian society, that is, to strike a blow at the domestic political situation. But here too, there is already a response from Russian citizens - this is unanimous support for all who have found themselves in trouble, support for the army and an increase, which is very important, an increase in the number of those wishing to join our men, the fighters who heroically defend Russia with weapons in their hands. The number of those wishing to sign contracts with the Ministry of Defense has increased in recent days.

He's right of course that the goal here is probably to improve the Ukrainian's bargaining position. But it's laughable to hear hear Putin whine about indiscriminate strikes on civilians and suggest no one could be expected to negotiate with such monsters. His troops have been shelling civilian areas and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine for two years. More than 10,000 Ukranian civilians have been killed in the war so far.

As for the idea that this is designed to sow discord, that's probably also true but I don't believe Putin's claim that it is failing. A lot of Russians have already gone to jail to protest the war. And this clip, though it hasn't been verified, suggests some Russians in Kursk are joining the Ukrainian troops.

Kursk citizens claim that many Russian volunteers are switching to the Ukrainian side. They are fed up with their government not caring about people unless they're from Moscow or St. Petersburg.

Some Russian soldiers were killed, some were captured, and some started fighting… pic.twitter.com/duZPeN2fwl

— Victoria (@victoriaslog) August 12, 2024

Putin was apparently feeling a bit prickly during his meeting today. When the governor of Kursk was asked to give his report, Putin cut him off for talking about the military situation.

A. Smirnov :  Good afternoon, dear Vladimir Vladimirovich!

Dear colleagues!

The situation in the region is currently difficult, as of today the enemy controls 28 settlements. The depth of penetration into the territory of the Kursk region is 12 kilometers, the width along the front is 40 kilometers.

V. Putin:  Listen, Alexey Borisovich, this military department will report to us what the breadth and depth are there. You tell us about the socio-economic situation and report on assistance to people.

Russian media is talking around the inconvenient fact of an invasion by Ukraine and is describing this as a counter-terrorism operation by Russian forces. It sounds like martial law to me. How long will they be able to pretend this isn't what it is?

Meanwhile in Russia: since it's too embarrassing to officially admit that Ukraine counter-invaded its large and aggressive neighbor, Moscow is calling it a "counterterrorism operation" that has now been announced in Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk regions.https://t.co/ZciTWoTPM1

— Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) August 11, 2024

Here's the clip.