What did Kyiv claim in Kursk Oblast on 13 August 2024?
A retrospective on the claims and counterclaims of 13 August 2024, as Ukraine's incursion into Russia's Kursk Oblast continued.
What did Ukraine say it held inside Russia on 13 August 2024? The answer, as reported at the time, was 74 settlements in Kursk Oblast, with Ukrainian troops described as still advancing.
The Russian Defence Ministry offered a different picture of the front. It said its forces were fighting Ukrainian troops about 28 km (17 mi) from the border.
Accusations a day earlier
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 claims and accused Russia of falsifying war crimes.
The strike on Kyiv
The offensive unfolded 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 those three days show a conflict being fought on two fronts at once: a contest over territory and narrative inside Russia, and continued missile strikes on the Ukrainian capital. Each side's claims about the Kursk operation were stated publicly, and each was contested by the other.
