Kursk claims and counterclaims on 13 August 2024
A look back at what Kyiv and Moscow said about the fighting in Kursk Oblast, and at the missile strike on Kyiv that preceded it.
What did each side claim about the Kursk front on 13 August 2024? Ukraine said its troops were still advancing in Kursk Oblast and now controlled 74 settlements inside Russia. The Russian Defence Ministry said its forces were fighting the Ukrainians about 28 km (17 mi) from the border.
The two statements describe the same offensive in different terms. Kyiv spoke of continued movement and a specific count of settlements. Moscow spoke of a fight at a stated distance from the frontier. Both were official claims, and each served the interests of the side making it.
The chemical weapons accusation
The day before, on 12 August 2024, the acting governor of Kursk Oblast, Alexei Smirnov, accused the Ukrainian military of using chemical weapons that poisoned Russian civilians. Ukraine's State Security Service denied the claim and accused Russia of falsifying war crimes. The exchange showed that the dispute was being fought over allegations of conduct as well as over territory.
The strike on Kyiv
The fighting in Kursk Oblast ran alongside continued Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities. On 11 August 2024, a Russian KN-23 ballistic missile attack on Kyiv killed two people, including a 4-year-old child, and injured three others.
Taken together, the reports from 11 to 13 August 2024 show an offensive on Russian soil, competing accounts of how it was going, and a deadly strike on the Ukrainian capital in the same days.
