Russia declares emergency amid Ukrainian attack, hits Ukraine mall

Emergency workers search for victims after Russian missile hit a supermarket in Ukraine.

By Samya Kullab

Aug. 9, 2024 Updated 1:06 PM PT

KYIV, Ukraine — Russia declared a “federal-level” emergency in the Kursk region after a large-scale incursion from Ukraine and sent reinforcements there Friday, four days after hundreds of Ukrainian troops poured across the border in what appeared to be Kyiv’s biggest attack on Russian soil since the war began.

Meanwhile, a Russian plane-launched missile slammed into a Ukrainian shopping mall in the middle of the day, killing at least 14 people and wounding 44 others, authorities said.

The mall in Kostiantynivka, in the eastern Donetsk region, is in the town’s residential area. Thick black smoke rose above it after the strike.

“This is another targeted attack on a crowded place, another act of terror by the Russians,” Donetsk regional head Vadym Filashkin said in a Telegram post.

It was the second major strike on the town in almost a year. Last September, a Russian missile hit an outdoor market there, killing 17.

July saw the heaviest civilian casualties in Ukraine since October 2022, the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said Friday. Conflict-related violence killed at least 219 civilians and injured 1,018 in July, the mission said.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said reinforcements were on their way to the Kursk region to counter Ukraine’s raid. Russia is deploying rocket launchers, towed artillery guns, tanks transported on trailers, and heavy tracked vehicles, the RIA-Novosti news agency said, citing the Defense Ministry.

“The operational situation in the Kursk region remains difficult,” Kursk acting Gov. Alexei Smirnov said on Telegram.

The Russian Defense Ministry reported fighting in the western outskirts of Sudzha, about six miles from the border. The town has an important pipeline transit hub for Russian natural gas.

Social services and civic associations are providing assistance to people forced to flee their homes by the fighting, he said. The last Russian figure for evacuations in Kursk was 3,000.

Little reliable information about the surprise Ukrainian operation has emerged, and its strategic aims are unclear. Ukrainian officials have refused to comment specifically about the incursion, which is taking place about 320 miles southwest of Moscow.

But a top advisor to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday that border region attacks will cause Russia to “start to realize that the war is slowly creeping inside of Russian territory.” Myhailo Podolyak also suggested that the operation would improve Kyiv’s hand in the event of negotiations with Moscow.

Asked about Ukraine’s incursion, White House national security spokesman John F. Kirby said Friday that the U.S. was “in touch with our Ukrainian counterparts” but that he would not comment until “those conversations are complete.”

“There’s been no changes in our policy approaches,” Kirby said when asked if there had been a change in U.S. policy on use of weapons. “They’re using it in an area where we had said before that they could use U.S. weapons for cross-border strikes. The end goal here is to help Ukraine defend itself.”

Mathieu Boulègue, a defense analyst at the Chatham House think tank in London, said the Ukrainians appear to have a clear goal in mind.

“Such a coordinated ground force movement responds to a clear military objective, yet unknown, that requires extreme operational security,” Boulègue said in a telephone interview.

The raid spooks the Russian public and delivers a slap in the face to Russian President Vladimir Putin, offering Ukraine “a great PR coup,” he said.

The attack “is a massive symbol, a massive display of force [showing] that the war is not frozen, the war is coming to you,” he said.

The assault came as the Ukrainian army toils to hold at bay an intense Russian push at places on the front line in eastern Ukraine, especially in the Donetsk region. Putin has made clear he wants to capture the parts of Donetsk that the Kremlin’s forces don’t already occupy.

Russia declares federal-level emergencies when there are more than 500 victims or damage exceeds 500 million rubles, equivalent to about $6 million.

The Kursk fighting has earned considerable attention in Russian media, at the top of news websites and state television news broadcasts.

State TV channel Rossiya-1 devoted its first 10 minutes of its 11 a.m. newscast Friday to various aspects of the situation. There wasn’t any reporting from the front, but the newscast led with video from the Russian Defense Ministry purportedly showing the destruction of Ukrainian military vehicles.

Much of the coverage was about the humanitarian situation — children being taken to shelters aboard buses, and people in other regions gathering food, diapers and other supplies to be sent to Kursk.

The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, says Ukrainian forces have pressed on with their “rapid advances” deeper into the Kursk region, reportedly going up to 20 miles beyond the border.

“The lack of a coherent Russian response to the Ukrainian incursion into Kursk … and the reported rate of Ukrainian advance indicates that Ukrainian forces were able to achieve operational surprise,” the Washington-based institute said late Thursday.

A Russian Defense Ministry statement Friday said only that the military “continues to repel the attempted invasion” and is responding with airstrikes, artillery and troops on the ground.

Ukraine has also kept up its strategy of hitting rear areas with long-range drones, targeting military sites, oil refineries and other infrastructure. Ukrainian drones attacked an airfield in Russia’s Lipetsk region, about 180 miles from the Ukraine border, on Thursday night, authorities said.

Ukraine’s General Staff confirmed the drone strike on Lipetsk-2 airfield Friday morning, saying it was used as a base for fighter jets. The Russian Defense Ministry said 75 Ukrainian drones were shot down, 19 of them over Lipetsk.

Kullab writes for the Associated Press.