A surprise offensive by Ukrainian forces into Russia’s Kursk region will create a “buffer zone on the aggressor’s territory” to thwart a Russian attack on Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday.
Earlier, President Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces were strengthening their positions in Kursk and that “the foothold of our presence is being strengthened.”
Zelenskiy also praised his country’s invading forces for capturing Russian troops, saying the effort would “replenish our foreign exchange reserves” and hasten the release of Ukrainian troops and civilians being held by Russian forces.
“Our main task now is to destroy as much of Russia’s war-fighting capabilities as possible and to launch the maximum counter-offensive action,” Zelensky said.
Ukrainian forces appear determined to repel any attempt by Russia to retake the area, which Russia has been occupying for nearly two weeks, covering an estimated 400 square miles. The Ukrainian Air Force commander said a second bridge in the area had been heavily damaged as Kiev seeks to undermine Russian combat operations. “One more bridge will be gone,” Air Force commander Mykola Oreshchuk wrote in Telegram.
Ukraine attack: Why is Russia’s response so slow?
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Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly downplayed the invasion, calling it an “incident” and accusing the United States and Western countries of planning it. U.S. officials have said they had no advance knowledge of the Ukrainian attack.
Two women were injured in a Ukrainian drone attack in the Belgorod region on the Russian border, local government official Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
Russia tells Kursk refugees not to go home yet
Residents of Kursk’s Korenev district who fled fighting as Ukrainian forces seized the area will not be able to return to their homes, district officials said Sunday. Marina Degtyareva said the situation in the district remains “very severe,” adding that those who insist on returning home are a problem for Russian forces and that some attempts “have led to terrible tragedies.” Residents would be notified when it is safe, she said in a social media post.
The incursion, which Russian officials say has displaced more than 120,000 civilians, came as a shock to many living in the Kursk region along the Ukrainian border.
“Nobody expected these clashes in the Kursk region,” Yan Furtsev, a member of the local opposition Yabloko party, told Euronews. “That’s why there is confusion and panic. Residents are arriving (from the frontline areas) and are very scared.”
Russian missiles target Kiev
Russia launched its third ballistic missile attack on Kiev this month on Sunday, but preliminary data showed that most of the projectiles fired were shot down, the Ukrainian capital’s junta said. The head of Kiev’s junta, Serhiy Popko, said in a Telegram message that the attacks came six days apart. It was in an apparent response from Moscow to the surprisingly successful Russian invasion of Ukraine in the Kursk region.
“This is the third ballistic attack on the capital in August, with exactly six days between attacks,” Popko said. No casualties were reported, but regional governor Ruslan Kravchenko said two homes were destroyed in the latest attack and 16 others were damaged by falling shrapnel.
Russia invaded Ukraine two and a half years ago and now controls about 20 percent of the territory in the east and south.
Article contributed by Reuters
