The unprecedented assault entered its fourth day Friday with Moscow rushing reinforcements and bombing its own territory to try and contain the Ukrainian advance.
A convoy of burnt-out military trucks, some bearing the ‘Z’ symbol of the Kremlin’s war and appearing to contain bodies, sits along the side of a highway.
The video, circulating on social media Friday and geolocated by NBC News, doesn’t show a beleaguered section of the front lines in eastern Ukraine. It is a village in Kursk, across the border in southern Russia.
For days now Vladimir Putin’s forces have struggled to put down an incursion into Russian territory by Ukrainian troops, after a surprise attack that threatened to upend the war’s status quo and open a new front in a daring challenge to the Kremlin.
Probably both. Divert pressure off the front. Disrupt supply lines and infrastructure (roads, bridges and railroads). I’ve also heard mention that one axis of advance is towards a nuclear plant.
I’ve seen some keyboard warriors theorize that the Ukrainians intend to capture the plant as a bargaining chip in negotiations with Russian because Russia currently holds a Ukrainian nuclear power plant. My (wild ass) guess is that if they make it to the plant, they will just destroy its ability to generate power, then retreat.