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reporter | an jing

editor｜liu haichuan

more than a month after the ukrainian army invaded russia's kursk oblast, the russian army launched its first major counterattack in kursk and recaptured part of the territory occupied by the ukrainian army.

military observation agencies tracked that the russian army sent more experienced troops in the counterattack, including airborne troops and marines. previously, russia mainly deployed reserve soldiers in kursk, and chechen special forces later joined the battle.

at the same time, russian troops continued to advance in eastern ukraine, and the front line has advanced to an area about 8 kilometers away from the strategic town of pokrovsk.

as the russian army approaches pokrovsk, the united states and britain are considering relaxing restrictions on ukraine's use of their long-range missiles to strike russian targets. since the beginning of the russian-ukrainian conflict, western countries have banned ukraine from using their long-range missiles to strike russian targets.

british sources revealed that the british government has basically decided to allow ukraine to use storm shadow cruise missiles to strike russia. british foreign secretary david lammy said that iran's delivery of missiles to russia was a turning point.

araudinov said that the ukrainian army suffered heavy casualties and began to realize that it was "not easy" to hold the occupied territory. statistics released by the russian ministry of defense on the same day showed that more than 350 ukrainian soldiers were killed in the battle. since ukraine entered kursk on august 6, more than 12,200 ukrainian soldiers have died.

last week, ukrainian president volodymyr zelensky announced that the ukrainian army had captured 100 settlements in kursk and controlled 1,300 square kilometers of land. more than 30 civilians in kursk oblast were killed in the ukrainian army's actions.

the agency predicts that the russian army may try to split the ukrainian-occupied area of ​​kursk into two parts and then launch a larger-scale counterattack.

one of the purposes of ukraine's attack on kursk was to force russia to redeploy troops and reduce the pressure on the donbas region in eastern ukraine. however, in retaliation for ukraine's attack on kursk, russia has stepped up its offensive in eastern ukraine. russian security council secretary sergei shoigu announced on tuesday that since august, the russian army has advanced nearly 1,000 square kilometers in the donbas region.

the russian front line is only about 8 kilometers away from pokrovsk. pokrovsk authorities said that the russian army has begun firing artillery at the town. pokrovsk had about 60,000 residents before the war, and now more than half have evacuated. the ukrainian authorities previously issued a mandatory evacuation order to local residents.

in addition to the unfavorable war situation in eastern ukraine, as winter approaches, how to survive the cold winter with destroyed energy facilities has become another problem that ukraine urgently needs to solve. ukrainian prime minister denis shmygal said this week that russian troops destroyed all thermal power plants serving kharkiv, ukraine's second largest city. ukraine has now lost half of its power generation capacity, and rotating power outages will continue in the winter.

unwilling to be dragged into the battlefield, the united states has previously disagreed with ukraine using american weapons to attack russian targets. since the beginning of this year, the united states has relaxed restrictions and allowed the ukrainian army to use american weapons to attack russian targets in some areas such as kursk. ukrainian president zelensky has been calling on allies such as the united states, britain, and france to lift restrictions on ukraine's use of long-range weapons from various countries and allow ukraine to launch long-range missiles at russia.

as russian troops approached pokrovsk, the united states and britain began to consider meeting zelensky's demands.

blinken said he would then report to us president joseph biden on the policy adjustment. on tuesday, when asked by the media whether he would lift restrictions on the use of us long-range missiles against ukraine, biden said the us government was "studying it". it is reported that ukraine has submitted a list of targets it plans to strike to the united states.

lamy pointed out that iran's provision of ballistic missiles to russia has changed the strategic thinking of britain and the united states. he accused iran of seriously escalating tensions between russia and ukraine.

earlier this week, the u.s. government accused russia of receiving fath-360 short-range ballistic missiles from iran, arguing that iran's assistance would give russia more room to launch long-range attacks on ukraine. iran sent a letter to the united nations, strongly denying that it had provided missiles to russia.

the storm shadow has a maximum range of 250 kilometers and was jointly developed by the united kingdom, france and italy. ukraine has already equipped the missile. if ukraine is allowed to use the storm shadow against russian territory, it is expected that the united kingdom, france and other countries will set a series of restrictions to avoid using the missile against civilian targets.

the united states is considering giving up on the long-range army tactical missile system (atacms), which has a maximum range of 305 kilometers. ukraine previously launched atacms against crimea. ukraine does not recognize crimea's annexation by russia. for ukraine, using atacms to attack crimea is not an attack on the russian mainland.