Russia finds someone to blame for Ukraine’s attack in Kursk region - ISW
A Ukrainian Armed Forces soldier at the entrance to the city of Sudzha in Russia’s Kursk region (Illustrative photo: Getty Images)
Russian law enforcement authorities have detained several officials from the leadership of three regions bordering Ukraine. They are being investigated for the failure of the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ incursion into the Kursk region in August 2024, according to a report by the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
On Monday, August 25, Russian authorities arrested Vladimir Bazarov, acting deputy governor of the Kursk region.
The arrest is part of a criminal case concerning the embezzlement of funds allocated for the construction of defensive fortifications in the border areas of the Belgorod region during Bazarov’s tenure in the regional administration.
Acting governor of the Kursk region, Alexander Khinshtein, stated that Bazarov embezzled one billion rubles (about $12.4 million) from these funds.
The Institute noted that, on similar embezzlement charges, law enforcement previously detained former Kursk governor Alexei Smirnov, former deputy governor of the Bryansk region Nikolai Simonenko, and former deputy governor of the Belgorod region Rustem Zainullin.
Additionally, according to the report, President Vladimir Putin also symbolically dismissed Russian Transport Minister and former Kursk governor Roman Starovoit on July 7 - shortly before his apparent suicide later that same day.
“ISW continues to assess that these arrests and personnel changes are part of a concerted Kremlin effort to use border oblast officials as scapegoats for Russia’s failure to repel the Ukrainian incursion into Kursk Oblast in August 2024,” the report states.
The Institute also suggests that the Kremlin is attempting to shift blame onto local officials for Russia’s inability to stop Ukrainian raids across the Belgorod border in 2023 and 2024.
Ukrainian Armed Forces operation in the Kursk region
On August 6, 2024, the Ukrainian Defense Forces crossed the state border and launched an offensive operation in the Kursk region. Its objective was to prevent a Russian invasion of the Sumy region and protect residents from air attacks.
By the end of August, Ukrainian troops controlled about 1,100 km² and more than 100 settlements in the Kursk region.
However, due to a Russian counteroffensive, by the end of 2024, the territory under Ukrainian control had shrunk to around 460 km².
On March 13, 2025, Russian forces captured Sudzha. Currently, the width of the Ukrainian bridgehead in the Kursk region is 11 kilometers.
