KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s top military commander said his forces now control 1,000 square kilometers (386 square miles) of the Kursk region bordering Russia, the first time a Ukrainian military official has publicly commented on gains from a lightning advance that began in 1991. Embarrassed the Kremlin.
General Oleksandr Syrskyi made the remarks in a video posted on Monday on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Telegram channel. In the video, Syrskyi briefed the president on the situation on the front lines.
“The troops are carrying out their tasks. Fighting is already going on along the entire front line. The situation is under our control,” Syrsky said.
Russian forces are still trying hard to respond to Ukrainian surprise attack After nearly a week of heavy fighting.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said the incursion, which has caused more than 100,000 civilians to flee, was an attempt by Kyiv to stop Moscow attack in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine and gain influence in possible future peace talks.
Zelensky confirmed for the first time that the Ukrainian army was inside the Kursk region. He praised his soldiers and commanders on Telegram for their “steadfastness and decisive actions.” He did not elaborate.
The Ukrainian operation is kept strictly confidential, and its objectives remain unclear. Amazing maneuver Who surprised the Kremlin forces opposes Russia continuous effort In recent months, Russian forces have managed to break through Ukrainian defenses at select points along the front line in eastern Ukraine.
Putin said at a meeting on Monday with top security and defense officials that the offensive, which began on Aug. 6, appeared to reflect Kyiv’s attempt to gain a better negotiating position in possible future talks to end the conflict. WarHe insisted that the Moscow army would win.
Putin said Ukraine may have hoped the attack would spark public unrest in Russia, but failed to do so, and claimed the number of volunteers to join the Russian army had increased because of the attack. He said Russian forces would continue their offensive in eastern Ukraine anyway.
Ukraine’s top military commander says his forces now control nearly 400 square miles of Russian territory after a lightning advance that has embarrassed Moscow, Associated Press correspondent Sagar Meghani in Washington reported.
“It is obvious that the enemy will continue its attempts to destabilize the situation in the border area, to try to destabilize the internal political situation in our country,” Putin said. He added that Russia’s main task is to “drive the enemy out of our territory and, in cooperation with the border service, ensure reliable coverage of the state border.”
Acting Kursk Governor Alexei Smirnov told President Putin that Ukrainian forces had advanced 12 kilometres (7.5 miles) into the Kursk region across a 40-kilometre (25-mile) front and now controlled 28 Russian settlements.
Smirnov said 12 civilians were killed and 121 others, including 10 children, were wounded. He added that about 121,000 people were evacuated or left the areas affected by the fighting on their own.
Smirnov added that tracking all Ukrainian units roaming the area and working to divert its path is difficult, noting that some of them use fake Russian identities.
The governor of the Belgorod region adjacent to Kursk also announced the evacuation of people from an area near the Ukrainian border.
Zelensky said the territory now controlled by Ukrainian forces had been used to strike Ukraine’s Sumy region several times, adding that “it is absolutely fair to destroy Russian terrorists where they are.”
“Russia brought war to others. Now it is returning home,” he said in a video posted on Telegram.
Russia had seen previous incursions into its territory during the nearly two-and-a-half-year war, but the Kursk incursion was the largest attack on its territory since World War II, marking a turning point in the hostilities. It was also the first time the Ukrainian military had led an incursion rather than pro-Ukrainian Russian fighters.
The advance dealt a major blow to Putin’s efforts to pretend that life in Russia was largely unaffected by the war. Government propaganda has tried to downplay the offensive, emphasizing the authorities’ efforts to help the region’s population and seeking to distract from the military’s failure to prepare for and quickly repel the attack.
Kursk residents have recorded videos complaining about having to flee the border area, leaving their belongings behind, and pleading with Putin for help. But Russia’s state-controlled media has imposed strict restrictions on any expression of discontent.
Retired General Andrei Gorolev, a member of the Russian parliament’s lower house of parliament, criticized the military for failing to protect the border.
“Unfortunately, the border force did not have its own intelligence assets,” he said via his messaging app. “Nobody likes to see the truth in reports, everybody just wants to hear that everything is fine.”
The fighting inside Russia has raised questions about whether Ukraine is using weapons supplied by NATO members. Some Western countries have been reluctant to let Ukraine use their military aid to strike Russian territory, fearing that it could fuel an escalation that could drag Russia and NATO into war.
While it is not clear what kind of weapons Ukraine is using across the border, Russian media have widely reported that American Bradley and German Marder armored infantry vehicles have been present there. This claim could not be independently verified.
Ukraine I have already used it. American weapons to strike inside Russia.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said in an interview published Monday that the weapons his country provided “cannot be used to attack Russia on its territory.”
Meanwhile, German Defense Ministry spokesman Arne Collatz said Monday that legal experts agree that “international law states that a state defending itself has the right to defend itself on the territory of the attacker. This is clear from our point of view as well.”
Russia’s defence ministry said on Monday that reinforcements sent to the area, backed by air power and artillery, had repelled seven attacks by Ukrainian units near Martynovka, Borki and Korynevo in the past 24 hours.
The ministry added that Russian forces also prevented an attempt by Ukrainian mobile groups to penetrate deep into Russian territory near Kavushuk.
The hardest phase of the Ukrainian incursion is likely to begin now as Russian reserves enter the fray, said Pasi Paroinen, an analyst at the Finland-based open-source intelligence agency Blackbird Group, which monitors the war.
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