(Kyiv) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday that his army was “strengthening” its positions in Russia’s Kursk region, more than ten days after launching a surprise major offensive on Russian soil.
The Russian army, for its part, said it was “repelling” new assaults from Kyiv, while continuing to pound several regions of Ukraine, notably in the Donbass (East), where it has the advantage over the outnumbered forces of Kyiv.
On August 6, the Ukrainian army attacked the Kursk region, seizing, according to Kyiv, 82 localities and 1,150 square kilometers in an offensive that surprised Moscow and constitutes the largest foreign military operation on Russian soil since World War II.
“The general [Oleksandre] “Syrsky reported on the strengthening of the positions of our forces in the Kursk region and the expansion of the stabilized territory,” Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday after a meeting with the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army.
IMAGE UKRAINIAN DEFENSE MINISTRY, PROVIDED BY ASSOCIATED PRESS
In this image provided by the press office of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, a strategically important bridge over the Seim River is destroyed by Ukrainian troops as they continue their incursion into the Kursk region, Russia, on August 16.
The day before, the military man had assured his leader that his troops had advanced “one to three kilometers” and taken prisoners among the Russian soldiers.
The Russian army, which has deployed material and human reinforcements, assured for its part on Saturday that it had “repulsed” Ukrainian attacks near three localities in its region of Kursk, inflicting, according to it, heavy losses on its adversary.
President Vladimir Putin ordered his men several days ago to “expel” Kyiv’s forces from Russian territory.
Ukrainian anchoring
In the meantime, Kyiv’s army has anchored itself on Russian soil, marking an unprecedented advance at this stage since the start of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
At least 12 civilians have been killed and more than a hundred injured since the start of the Ukrainian operation, according to Russian authorities.
In recent days, Kyiv has gradually revealed its intentions, while Russia still occupies almost 20% of its neighbor’s territory.
She says she wants to force Moscow to withdraw troops from other parts of the front, create a “buffer zone” to end the bombing of the border, but also – and above all – use the conquered Russian territories to force the Kremlin to begin “fair” negotiations.
However, discussions between the two parties have been completely blocked since spring 2022.
Faced with the unprecedented advance of Ukrainian forces into Russian territory, several tens of thousands of civilians have already fled – by their own means or with the assistance of local services – the border villages of the Kursk region.
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In the neighbouring region of Belgorod, Russian authorities have been alarmed in recent days, announcing on Friday evening that they were blocking access and evacuating five border towns from Monday, while “temporarily” closing access to a sixth.
On the Ukrainian side, the flow of evacuees is also continuing towards the city of Sumy, about 40 km from the common border. The city was targeted by a Russian attack on Saturday morning, leaving two people injured, according to the Interior Ministry.
PHOTO EVGENIY MALOLETKA, ASSOCIATED PRESS
A police officer removes shrapnel from a crater after a Russian airstrike on a residential area in Sumy, Ukraine, on August 17.
Russian “dozens of assaults” in the East
At the same time, heavy fighting continues further south, in eastern Ukraine, the epicentre of the conflict where the Russian army has been gaining ground for months.
In recent days, Moscow has claimed responsibility for capturing several villages in the direction of the town of Pokrovsk, an important logistical hub on the road to the strongholds of Chassiv Yar and Kostiantynivka.
“Dozens of Russian assaults have been launched on our positions over the past day,” Zelensky said Saturday, assuring that his soldiers “are doing everything to destroy the occupier and repel the attacks.” “The situation is under control,” he said.
Also in the Donetsk region, Governor Vadym Filachkin announced on Saturday that Russian strikes killed two people and injured two.
Further north, a 49-year-old woman was killed in the early morning in a shelling by Moscow’s army in the Kharkiv region, according to the regional prosecutor’s office.