Ukrainian journalists film AFU pulling down a Russian flag in Sudzha as Russia denies town’s capture

The day before, Russian authorities vehemently denied that the Armed Forces of Ukraine had control over Sudzha. According to a report by the state-owned news agency RIA Novosti, Alexei Kondratyev, an aide to the acting governor of the Kursk region, asserted that Sudzha remained under the control of the Russian army.

“The Russian tricolor [flag] is flying on the administration building. This should be stressed. Sudzha is ours,” Kondratyev claimed.

According to the Russian state-run TASS news agency, later on August 14, Apti Alaudinov, deputy head of the Russian Armed Forces' Main Military and Political Directorate and commander of the Chechen Akhmat special forces unit, claimed that the Ukrainian forces were not in control of Sudzha.

“There is active fighting there every day. The enemy cannot say that it fully controls Sudzha, because it does not really control it,” Alaudinov said.

At the same time, pro-Russian Telegram channels have begun reporting the loss of Russian military control over the city. The channel “Reports of the Novorossiya militia” («Сводки ополчения Новороссии») wrote that Ukrainian reconnaissance and diversionary groups are operating around Sudzha in multiple directions, putting local residents in danger.

“We no longer control Sudzha. It's time to acknowledge this. With propaganda footage from the enemy side emerging from the city, denying it is pointless. The AFU has managed to advance deep into the city and, crucially, has surrounded it from the north and south, reaching the bypass road and using it for further advances to the north and east. While some may argue that since the enemy hasn't fully occupied the city within its administrative boundaries, it isn't under AFU control, this is mere sophistry. The key issue is that the enemy is present in the settlement, with its reconnaissance and sabotage groups spotted 10-15 kilometers around Sudzha. The enemy has the ability to move through the city and around it. Fighting is now taking place in Martynovka, much further north, and Makhnovka to the southeast. [...] We are concerned for the civilian population. Assuring them that the Russian Armed Forces are in control of the city is misleading and dangerous. People believe these boastful reports and attempt to return home, only to face deadly danger.”

Roman Alekhin, an advisor to the acting governor of the Kursk Region, voiced his position, saying that the local authorities have not confirmed that the town of Sudzha is under the control of the Russian Armed Forces. He suggested that Kondratyev, who spoke about the Russian forces being in control of Sudzha, may have been referring to a different location.

“The Kursk Region authorities have not stated that Sudzha has been liberated or controlled by the Russian Armed Forces, and this was stated by Kondratyev, who is not a representative of the authorities, nor is he a representative of the acting governor. Kondratyev is a representative of the gubernatorial candidate Alexei Smirnov. He does not represent the Kursk Region authorities, he represents a gubernatorial candidate — that is, he can engage in campaigning, but he cannot make statements on behalf of the authorities or the acting governor. As for the statement itself, we can only expect that today the representative will appear in the center of Sudzha together with the journalists who wrote about its liberation [by Russian forces]. But I think that this will not happen and [Kondratyev] simply does not know the Kursk Region and was referring to the village of Korenevo.”

Korenevo is a village over 45 kilometers to the north-west of Sudzha.

On August 12, the Kursk Region’s acting governor, Alexei Smirnov, reported to Vladimir Putin that over 2,000 Kursk Region residents remained in territory controlled by Ukrainian forces, with their fate unknown. Smirnov was cut off by Putin when he mentioned the depth of the Ukrainian army’s advance into Russian territory. “The depth of penetration into the territory of the Kursk Region is 12 kilometers, the width along the front is 40 kilometers,” Smirnov said. Putin retorted by saying Smirnov’s mandate was limited to describing the “socio-economic situation” and “assistance [being offered] to the people.”

It is important to note that the numbers cited by Smirnov are likely outdated due to the rapidly evolving situation on the ground. As per a statement from Ukraine's Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukrainian forces controlled close to 1,000 square kilometers in Russia’s Kursk Region as of August 12.

Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region has been ongoing for more than a week, having begun on August 6.

On August 13, governor Smirnov announced that some evacuees from the region would be relocated to Russian-occupied territory in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Oblast. The decision followed complaints from the residents of the Sudzhansky District in Kursk — the site of the ongoing Ukrainian military operation — who expressed their frustration over deficiencies in the Russian government’s evacuation efforts, despite earlier announcements from Smirnov.

On August 10, Russia’s Ministry of Emergency Situations reported that 76,000 people had been evacuated — which is more than the total population of the conflict-affected section of the Kursk Region.