Ukraine has launched a new assault inside Russia’s Kursk oblast, expanding its incursion into Russian territory by as much as three miles.

Kyiv’s new incursion came on the six-month anniversary of its first attack inside Kursk, with one Russian military blogger describing the surprise attack as coming “like a bolt from the blue”.

The incursion was also reported by the Russian ministry of defence, which said Ukrainian troops and armoured vehicles had launched several waves of attacks near the villages of Ulanok and Cherkasskaya Konopelka.

Kyiv’s forces launched a “new series of battalion-sized mechanised assaults in Kursk Oblast and advanced up to five kilometres behind Russian lines southeast of Sudzha, Kursk Oblast,” the Institute for the Study of War said.

Without directly referring to the new attack, Volodymyr Zelensky said in his overnight address that the incursion “brought the war home for Russians so that they might feel just what war is. And they are feeling it.”

Meanwhile, the first batch of French Mirage 2000 fighter jets arrived in Ukraine, French armed forces minister Sebastien Lecornu announced yesterday.

The fourth-generation jets have been modified to focus on air-to-ground combat, reportedly so they can fire French and British long-range missiles at Russian targets.