The US intends to get more information from Kiev about the Ukrainian attack on Russia’s Kursk Region, the White House’s national security spokesman John Kirby has stated.
Around 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers backed by armor launched the cross-border attack on Tuesday morning, shelling the town of Sudzha. Moscow has accused the invaders of indiscriminately targeting civilians.
“We intend to reach out to our Ukrainian partners to get a fuller picture of what happened,” Kirby told reporters on Wednesday. He also said the US policy on Ukraine’s use of American-supplied weapons systems “has not changed in any way.”
Washington has officially restricted Kiev from using US weapons and equipment inside Russia, but Ukraine has done so time and again. In May last year, Kirby spoke of US “frustration” with images of burning American vehicles that emerged during a Ukrainian raid on Belgorod Region.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has described the Kursk incursion as yet another “large-scale provocation” by Kiev, accusing Ukrainian troops of deliberately targeting civilians in Sudzha and other towns.
At least four civilians have been killed and 28 have been wounded in Ukrainian artillery and drone strikes, acting Governor Aleksey Smirnov said on Tuesday evening. The most recent casualties came from a kamikaze drone attack on an ambulance that killed its driver and wounded the doctor and the patient inside.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has described the Ukrainian attack on Kursk Region as “a terrorist act” and called on the international community to condemn it.
The Russian military has responded to the incursion in force, targeting the staging area in Sumy Region with Iskander ballistic missiles. According to General Valery Gerasimov, chief of the Russian General Staff, the attack was stopped not far from the border. At least 100 Ukrainian troops were killed, 215 were wounded and Kiev lost 54 armored vehicles, including seven tanks, Gerasimov said on Wednesday.