“Despite difficult and intense battles, our forces continue to advance in the Kursk region, and our state’s ‘exchange fund’ is growing. Seventy-four settlements are under Ukrainian control,” Zelensky said.
As shown in the video link, the Ukrainian leader asked his top commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, to develop the next “key steps” in the operation.
A sign indicating 108 kilometres to Kursk on the Russian-Ukrainian border in Sumy region, Ukraine.Credit: AP
“Everything is being executed according to the plan,” Syrskyi replied, without elaborating.
Kyiv has disclosed few details about its plans, in stark contrast with last year’s counteroffensive that was vaunted months in advance – before failing to breach well-prepared Russian defensive lines.
A week after the start of the shock offensive, Kursk regional governor Alexei Smirnov called on residents to show patience and character.
“I’ll say it straight: the crisis has not yet been overcome,” he wrote on social media.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has vowed to hit back at Ukraine with a “worthy response” and accused Kyiv’s “Western masters” of helping Ukraine.
At the United Nations, Russia called out Kyiv’s allies for not condemning the incursion.
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US President Joe Biden, in his first substantive comments, said Washington is in constant contact with Kyiv about the operation, although the White House said earlier it was not engaged in any aspect of planning or preparation.
“It’s creating a real dilemma for Putin,” Biden said.
Ukraine has cast the operation as defensive, saying its troops have taken control of areas that Russia has used to launch more than 2000 cross-border strikes since June.
“Ukraine is not interested in taking the territory of the Kursk region, but we want to protect the lives of our people,” the foreign ministry’s spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi said.
Russian forces have been trying to advance for months on multiple fronts in the eastern Donetsk region, taking advantage of their greater troop numbers to inch towards cities like the Kyiv-held logistics hub of Pokrovsk.
Tykhyi said: “It should be emphasised that the (Kursk) operation … helps the front line because it does not allow Russia to transfer additional units to the Donetsk region, complicates its military logistics.”
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For now, there is no sign of a let-up for Ukraine in the east, where Kyiv’s military said earlier it had recorded the largest number of battles with Russian forces on the Pokrovsk front in a single day since before the Kursk incursion.
On a trip to Kyiv on Tuesday, Lithuanian Defence Minister Laurynas Kasciunas said Russia was moving troops from its Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad to reinforce Kursk.
Pasi Paroinen, an analyst with the Black Bird Group, said on Monday that Russia had mostly relied on nearby military units to try to push back Ukrainian forces.
“Russians should have enough reserves, so that they should not be forced to weaken the ‘centre’ group of forces, which is currently pressuring the Ukrainian lines near Toretsk and Pokrovsk,” he said.
Reuters
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