Ukraine has captured greater than 150 Russian prisoners of struggle on some days within the cross-border army operation {that a} key civilian respectable mentioned was once the primary of “a number of levels” in taking the battle to Moscow.Oleksii Drozdenko, the top of the army management within the Ukrainian town of Sumy, mentioned the assault had fared higher than anticipated and there were simplest 15 casualties wanting health center remedy at the first day.“Every now and then there are greater than 100 or 150 prisoners of struggle an afternoon,” Drozdenko mentioned. Most of the Russian troops who’ve been guarding the border are younger conscripts. “They don’t wish to battle us,” he added.Oleksii Drozdenko, head of Sumy Town army management, throughout the interview. {Photograph}: Julia Kochetova/The GuardianSeveral movies have circulated of Ukrainians taking pictures prisoners of struggle, together with on the border within the first hours of the incursion on Tuesday 6 August. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has mentioned Kyiv is expanding its “change fund” to switch for PoWs held through Russia.Sumy is the Ukrainian town closest to the incursion and Drozdenko mentioned he were carefully concerned within the operation’s making plans however were sworn to secrecy, zipping his lips in a gesture to explain the significance of operational safety ahead of the marvel assault.Different native civilian leaders, significantly the Sumy area’s governor, Volodymyr Artyukh, have mentioned they weren’t warned upfront, suggesting Drozdenko was once in a relied on circle.The town respectable, a Zelenskiy appointee who’s town’s de facto mayor after the former incumbent was once arrested and charged for allegedly receiving a bribe ultimate autumn, mentioned he may just no longer say an excessive amount of in regards to the arrangements for the incursion a fortnight in the past as a result of there was once extra to come back.“We see simplest a part of this operation, someday we will be able to see a number of levels,” Drozdenko mentioned, characterising the incursion as “no longer like earlier raids” from Ukraine into Belgorod oblast to the east, that have been in large part led through anti-Kremlin Russian teams.Despite the fact that Drozdenko would no longer be offering any longer data, there are indicators that Ukraine has offered a brand new tactic to check out to achieve extra Russian territory. On Sunday morning Ukraine’s air drive launched a video of a hollow being blown in a bridge at Zvannoe, over the Seym River within Kursk province.
Ukraine forces blow hollow in 2nd Russian bridge in Kursk area – videoA couple of days previous every other bridge over the Seym were severed after a Ukrainian air assault, north of the village of Glushkovo, which is close to the frontline of the incursion and matter to a civilian evacuation order through Russian government.Despite the fact that Ukraine has no longer spelled out its intentions, knocking out the 3 bridges over the Seym at Glushkovo, Zvannoe and Karyzh would complicate Russian reinforcement of a pocket of land to the west of the present incursion space and enhance Ukraine’s possibilities of seizing the land if its development continues.On the finish of ultimate week, Sumy and different neighbouring areas organised a humanitarian delivery of meals and drugs to Russian civilians within the occupied space, together with from “our personal meals shops”, Drozdenko mentioned. No Russian civilians had fled around the border to change into refugees in Ukraine, he mentioned.mapPart of Drozdenko’s function was once to make sure hospitals in Sumy had been able to obtain casualties as soon as the incursion began. “There may be an abruptly low quantity of wounded coming from this operation into the hospitals,” the respectable mentioned.skip previous publication promotionSign as much as Headlines EuropeA digest of the morning’s primary headlines from the Europe version emailed direct to you each week dayPrivacy Understand: Newsletters would possibly comprise information about charities, on-line advertisements, and content material funded through out of doors events. For more info see our Privateness Coverage. We use Google reCaptcha to offer protection to our web page and the Google Privateness Coverage and Phrases of Carrier observe.after publication promotion“At the first day of the operation, there have been simplest 15 casualties. Sixty, seventy in step with cent of them had been very gentle, brought about through bomb harm, shrapnel,” he added, reflecting the truth that the cross-border assault was once a whole marvel to the Kremlin, which believed Ukraine would battle to protect its personal territory.On the finish of ultimate week, civilians in Sumy had been requested to donate O-negative blood, appropriate for emergency transfusions for any blood sort. The desire was once met “in a single hour”, the respectable mentioned, which “confirms that our other people enhance this operation”.Sumy town, a quiet provincial capital in north-east Ukraine with a inhabitants of about 250,000, had no longer been concerned within the preventing for the reason that determined early days of the struggle when it was once surrounded and defended through a civilian military, of which Drozdenko was once section.An aged girl walks to a bus forestall, in entrance of a church broken through shelling within the Sumy area of Ukraine. {Photograph}: George Ivanchenko/EPABut the incursion has introduced the struggle again to Sumy and the border spaces to the north, with renewed air, missile and artillery moves. “After we discuss seven months of 2024, January to July, there have been roughly 400 moves to frame spaces. However ultimate week we had 200 moves in just one week,” the respectable mentioned.A number of thousand have fled the frontline areas, that have been matter to a compulsory evacuation as much as 10km (6.2 miles) from the border in affected spaces. Drozdenko mentioned the ones fleeing would attempt to prepare their very own lodging or be housed in hostels within the town.Sumy has been safe through air defence, with interceptions and launches heard and observed from town centre during the last week. On Saturday morning one ballistic missile were given thru and landed in a side road, harmful about 15 civilian vehicles and wounding two other people, even supposing no longer significantly.Folks in Sumy had been resilient in spite of the newest bombing, Drozdenko mentioned, since the town had fought off the preliminary Russian invasion in March 2022, at a time when the common military was once 60 miles away.Highlighting his personal revel in, he mentioned: “Again then I used to be no longer feeling that constructive. We took section in side road preventing. I used to be nearly just about killed two times. It was once very frightening being shot at through a BTR [Russian armoured personnel carrier]. Now I’m no longer petrified of anything else.”
