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See inside the NYC-sized area of Russia that Ukraine seized in its lightning offensive

August 21, 20240
A journalist wearing protective gear photographs the burned wreckage of vehicles and damaged buildings in Sudzha, Russia.

Yan Dobronosov/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images

The Kremlin initially downplayed Kyiv’s ongoing offensive, saying it was the work of a “sabotage and reconnaissance group.”

But more than 100,000 Russian citizens have fled the region, and over 100 Russian soldiers surrendered or were captured since the lightning offensive began, a Ukrainian official said.

And Ukraine hasn’t shown signs of backtracking in the face of reinforcements.

Occupying territory as large as New York City
Rubble lies at the base of a destroyed building in the Russian town of Sudzha.

Yan Dobronosov/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images

Plans for the Kursk offensive were largely kept under wraps, taking allied nations like the US and even some Ukrainian troops by surprise once the operation began.

Zelenskyy said the clandestine nature of the offensive was intentional, saying allies would have called the invasion “unrealistic.“

On Tuesday, Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said Ukrainian forces have captured more Russian territory in last two weeks than Russia has seized from Ukraine in all of 2024 so far.

The Ukrainian assault marks the largest attack by a foreign enemy on Russian soil since World War II. The Kursk region was the scene of one of history’s largest battles where the Soviet Red Army turned the tide against the Nazis at huge cost, a conflict Russians remember as the Great Patriotic War.

Capturing Sudzha
Local residents shelter from shelling from the Russian side in Sudzha, Russia.

Kostiantyn Liberov/Libkos/Getty Images

While harrowing images of the Kursk region show the destructive aftermath during the incursion, Ukrainian officials said forces on the ground are making a point to provide aid and relief to Russian residents in the occupied territory, rather than dismantling infrastructure and targeting civilians, Russia has been accused of doing so in captured areas of Ukraine.

Ukrainian soldiers have given civilians water, canned goods, and other humanitarian aid, according to local reports. Ukrainian armed forces are also working in tandem with international humanitarian organizations to support the evacuation of civilians, according to a Ukrainian official.

Putin accuses the West of ‘waging war against us using Ukrainians’
A person wearing protective gear kneels near a shell crater on a road in Sudzha, Russia.

Yan Dobronosov/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images

A US State Department spokesperson disputed claims that the US coordinated the assault with Ukrainian forces, saying “it’s a little bit rich” for Russia to criticize Ukraine’s ambitious offensive, given its own violation of “Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.”

“Ultimately, the decisions about how Ukraine conducts its military operations are decisions that Ukraine makes,” spokesperson Matthew Miller said. “Nothing has changed about our policy with respect to strikes across the border.”

John Kirby, the US’s national security communications advisor, had stronger words for the Russian president’s complaints about the incursion: “There’s an easy solution: He can just get the hell out of Ukraine and call it a day.”