President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday that Ukrainian troops had “advanced well” in Russia’s Kursk region, as Kyiv’s biggest cross-border attack stretched into a second week.
The Ukrainian Army entered the Kursk region on August 6, capturing dozens of settlements in the biggest offensive by a foreign army on Russian soil since World War II.
“Today we have advanced well in the Kursk region. We are achieving our strategic goal,” Zelensky said in his evening address.
He had also spoken of gains of “one to two kilometers (0.6-1.2 miles) in different areas since the beginning of the day” in a social media post earlier on Wednesday.
Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said Ukraine would create a “buffer zone” in the region to prevent Russian cross-border strikes.
Russia said it had repelled Ukrainian attempts to push further into five areas of Kursk.
Since launching its invasion in February 2022, Russia has captured territory in southern and eastern Ukraine and subjected Ukrainian cities to missile and drone barrages.
‘It’s Very Worrying’
Ukraine said on Tuesday that it would not hold on to Russian land it captured and offered to stop raids if Moscow agreed to a “just peace.”
US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that the incursion had given Russian President Vladimir Putin a “real dilemma.”
More than 120,000 Russians have fled their homes in Kursk’s border areas, with the region’s governor announcing late Wednesday that another district had been evacuated.
Ukraine said it would “open humanitarian corridors” for civilians in the captured territory so they can evacuate towards Russia or Ukraine.
Putin has vowed to “dislodge” Ukrainian troops from Russian territory, accusing the neighbor of using the operation to “improve its negotiating position” in any future talks.
Blindfolded POWs
On the Ukrainian side of a Kursk border area, AFP reporters saw evidence of the intensity of the fighting.
Concrete fortifications lay toppled, and the remains of security and customs buildings could be seen caved in.
On the road, around 10 blindfolded and bound men in Russian military fatigues were being driven away from the border crossing in the direction of the city of Sumy on Tuesday.
The Russians “didn’t protect the border,” a Ukrainian serviceman who took part in the offensive and identified himself as Ruzhyk told AFP in the Sumy region.
Separately, Ukrainian forces fired long-range drones at the Voronezh, Kursk, Savasleyka, and Borisoglebsk airfields in central and western Russia overnight, a source in Kyiv’s security services told AFP.
Barbara Wojazer and Jonathan Brown, with AFP
