RUSSIA: Ukraine’s ATTACK ON KURSK
Published: June 12, 2025
On August 6, 2024, Ukraine’s army broke through the Russian border in the Kursk region, eventually capturing around 1,000 square kilometres of territory.
This came as Russia was having battlefield success along the frontline in Eastern Ukraine.
In this report, we analyse how Russian, Ukrainian and international media covered the event, and then discuss how the situation actually played out.
The Kyiv Independent.
Centre-left: Slightly favours a liberal perspective.
English-language: Focuses on global audiences.
Independent of Ukrainian government, critical of its wartime censorship.
The Kyiv Independent (KI) opens by quoting Vladimir Putin who calls the events in Kursk “a large-scale provocation”. This points to the fact that he acknowledges that something significant is happening.
The article then says that Russian officials reported clashes with Ukraine’s army on “Russian soil”.
This is significant to KI’s Ukrainian readership, as the country’s military has been fighting a defensive war on its own territory throughout the entire conflict.
KI then gives some context, reporting that Kursk region borders with Sumy region of Ukraine, highlighting that:
Sumy experienced daily attacks by Russia
Sumy region was liberated in April 2022
Ukraine did not attack Russian territory before that
It is true that Russia has actively bombed Sumy throughout the invasion of Ukraine.
It is also true that the region was liberated of Russian forces in April 2022. Russian officials have called it a planned withdrawal and a “gesture of goodwill”.
However, the claim about Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory is misleading.
While there are limited reports of attacks on Kursk region specifically before April 2022, the Ukrainian army did conduct strikes on Russian territory.
For example, on the second day of the invasion, Ukraine struck a Russian airbase in Rostov region with a missile, destroying a fighter jet.
The article then quotes Russian official reports of “five people killed, and at least 20 people injured” without clarifying if those are civilians.
It also reports that “Putin claimed that Ukrainian soldiers are carrying out attacks on civilian facilities”. KI adds that “these claims cannot be independently verified”.
The article wraps up by discussing Russian losses of two helicopters and two tanks in the Kursk region.
Most of these losses were independently verified but the article does not mention any Ukrainian losses.
Russia Today (RT).
State-controlled: funded and directed by the Russian government.
International: broadcasts globally to promote Russian official narratives.
The headline by RT talks about civilian casualties, quoting a Russian official.
It also mentions that children were injured, which would trigger further anger at Ukraine’s actions from the readers.
RT then suggests that the attack was “repelled” (stopped), also quoting official statements.
Confirmations of some civilian casualties and multiple injuries did appear later.
However, there is no evidence that Ukrainian soldiers attacked or executed any civilians.
There is verified evidence of Ukraine striking civil infrastructure in Kursk. In some cases, there is also verified evidence of Russian troops entering this infrastructure before the strikes.
The text says that “Kiev’s troops launched an unsuccessful cross-border incursion”.
RT uses the spelling “Kiev” for Ukraine’s capital city, which was the commonly accepted spelling in the Soviet period. In Ukraine, this spelling is viewed negatively as it is associated with Soviet policies to discourage the use of Ukrainian language, in favour of Russian.
Ukraine promotes the spelling “Kyiv” which is a legal requirement since 1995. Later, it pushed for international adoption of the spelling which is now widely accepted by international media.
RT reports that Ukraine lost 20 “fighters” in the attack (meaning soldiers). It does not mention any Russian losses.
RT concludes by discussing the Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK), a group of anti-Putin Russian citizens fighting for Ukraine. They launched short-term raids into Russian territories earlier in 2024.
The article shares unverified claims that the RDK was involved in the Kursk offensive. It was later confirmed that it did not take part.
RT calls RDK a “right-wing extremist militia force” and clarifies that it is considered a terrorist organisation in Russia. The group’s leader is a Russian neo-Nazi and a football hooligan, who owns a clothing brand popular among white supremacists and was banned from the Schengen Area in 2019.
Russian officials often claim that Ukraine’s government is controlled by a neo-Nazi regime. Connecting RDK with Ukraine’s actions in Kursk promotes this narrative.
One of the goals of the Russian invasion is stated as “to de-Nazify” Ukraine.
Ukraine’s far-right parties received 2% of votes in the last democratic election in 2019, less than some far-right parties in other European countries such as Italy where Fratelli d'Italia won 26% of votes.
However, some of the few far-right Ukrainian parliamentarians have made extreme remarks, including anti-Semitic and nationalist rhetoric.
In addition, the country has a complex political history, with many celebrated Ukrainian nationalists, such as Stepan Bandera, having a history of collaboration with the Nazi regime during its occupation of Ukraine in the 1940s.
During this period, many anti-Soviet and nationalist groups sided with Nazi Germany.
Some Ukrainian military units including the Azov Brigade were born out of ultra-nationalist volunteer groups.
In turn, Russia also has a long history of managing neo-Nazi groups in the country.
For example, the neo-Nazi Rusich Group is a military unit fighting against Ukraine since 2014.
In the rest of this report, we break down the coverage by Washington Post (left-leaning) and New York Post (right-leaning), explaining the different perspectives and fact-checking claims.
We then assess the data on the consequences of the attack on Kursk:
Did Ukraine draw Russian troops away from the Donbass?
Did Ukraine prevent an attack on Sumy?
What was the true cost of the operation for both sides?
How did Russia push Ukraine out of Kursk: North Korean troops, fiber optic drones and more.
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