Mr. Putin said the Russian Brigade crossed the border to attack Ukraine

“I was announced an hour ago that last night, the 810th Brigade members crossed the Russian – Ukrainian border and invaded the opponent’s territory,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said on television on 19/19/ 2. “Our forces are moving along the entire fighting route.”

Russian media said the 810 Brigade was the unit that was deployed to Kursk province, bordering the border with Sumy province of Ukraine, after Kiev launched a campaign to attack Russia in late last year.

If confirmed, this will be a Russian attack on Smy province of Ukraine since the Russian forces withdrew from the province in 2022. Russia seems to be seeking to achieve the maximum advantage in the field , when the country conducted negotiations with the United States on how to end the Ukrainian conflict.

President Putin also emphasized that Russia needs to build trust with the United States to resolve the Ukrainian conflict. “It is impossible to solve many problems, including the Ukraine crisis, without increasing the reliability level between Russia and the United States,” he said.

According to the head of the Kremlin, US President Donald Trump told him that Ukraine would participate in future peace talks and Moscow was also ready to negotiate.

Ukraine immediately rejected the Russian president’s statement about a set -up attack from Kursk into Smy.

“Putin’s information about a large -scale attack is not true,” said Andriy Kovalenko, Ukrainian official responsible for fighting false information, said. According to Kovalenko, a Russian reconnaissance unit tried to cross the border into Ukraine but was blocked. “No Russian unit is capable of carrying out a large -scale attack on Ukraine’s territory.”

The Russian army attacked Syy when the war broke out in February 2022, but retreated 6 weeks later. Any Russian effort to control more Ukraine territory in the new area will escalate the conflict, when President Trump is promoting the end of fighting quickly.

Ukraine desires the attacking campaign of Kurk province to force Russia to withdraw troops to protect the border provinces, to prevent the opponent’s advance on the Donbass front, including Lugansk and Donetsk provinces, as well as create levers for the President of Volodymyr Zelensky In future negotiations. President Zelensky also said that Ukraine’s attack on Kursk province made Russia unable to open a new front in Sumy province as planned.

However, the situation in Kursk is not as expected by Ukraine. After the first time, the Russian army strengthened the forces and mobilized tens of thousands of troops for the Kursk Front, while maintaining the momentum in Donbass.

Ukrainian army commander Oleksandr Syrsky on February 13 said Kiev also controlled the 500 km2 area in Kursk, equivalent to 38% of the territory won during the campaign in this province. In the first phase of the campaign in August24, President Zelensky announced Ukraine accounted for about 1,300 km2 of Russian territory.

Lieutenant General Apty Alaudinov, commander of the Akhmat task force of the Republic of Chechen in Russia, said on February 10, said most Ukrainian soldiers deployed in the first phase of the Kursk campaign were eliminated from the battle, only force Supplement with skills and experiences inferior to previous units.

Alaudinov did not specify the number of soldiers deployed by Ukraine when launching a campaign against Kursk province. Western experts estimate the Ukrainian troops in Kursk in mid-August 24 was about 15,000-30,000 people, equivalent to at least 5-10 brigades.

President Zelensky at the beginning of the month mentioned the idea of ​​”exchanging one” of the territory directly with Russia to end the conflict, including the area where Ukraine was controlling in Kursk. The Kremlin then rejected the proposal, confirming that Ukrainian forces would fail and be knocked out of Russian territory.