Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday that Ukrainian troops are moving farther into Russia, as Kyiv’s biggest cross-border attack stretched into a second week.
The Ukrainian army entered Russia’s Kursk region on Aug. 6, capturing dozens of settlements in the biggest offensive by a foreign army on Russian soil since World War II.
“In the Kursk region, we are moving further. From one to two kilometers (0.6-1.2 miles) in different areas since the beginning of the day,” Zelenskyy said on social media, adding that Ukraine forces had captured more than 100 Russian soldiers.
Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said Ukraine would create a “buffer zone” in the region to prevent Russian cross-border strikes.
“The creation of a buffer zone in the Kursk region is a step to protect our border communities from daily hostile shelling,” he said.
The neighboring Russian region of Belgorod declared its own state of emergency, as the governor warned the situation was “extremely difficult” due to Ukrainian shelling and drone attacks.
An AFP analysis of data provided by the Institute for the Study of War indicated Ukrainian troops had advanced over an area of at least 310 square miles of Russia as of Monday.
Russia said it had repelled Ukrainian attempts to push farther into five areas of Kursk.
“The attempts by enemy mobile units using armored equipment to break through deeper into Russian territory have been repelled,” its defense ministry said.
Roman Pilipey/AFP via Getty Images
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.
After recapturing some lost territory in 2022, a long-awaited Ukrainian counteroffensive last year largely petered out.
Ukraine said Tuesday it would not hold on to Russian land it captured and offered to stop raids if Moscow agreed a “just peace.”
“The sooner Russia agrees to restore a just peace … the sooner the raids by the Ukrainian defense forces into Russia will stop,” foreign ministry spokesman Georgiy Tykhy said.
President Biden said Tuesday the incursion had given Russian President Vladimir Putin a “real dilemma.”
CBS News senior foreign correspondent Holly Williams, who has reported from Ukraine many times since Russia’s invasion, called the incursion “humiliating” for Putin.
“We have seen video of Russian soldiers who have apparently been captured in their own country — a country that used to be a superpower — driven blindfolded into Ukraine,” Williams told “CBS Mornings” on Wednesday.
Williams said that Ukraine could potentially use the incursion as leverage in future negotiations with Russia, which currently occupies about 20% of Ukraine.
“It’s very worrying”
More than 120,000 Russians have fled their homes in Kursk’s border areas.
Ukraine said it would “open humanitarian corridors” for civilians in the captured territory so they can evacuate toward Russia or Ukraine.
It also said it would let “international humanitarian organizations” into the area.
Footage from Ukrainian TSN news, purportedly taken inside the Kursk town of Sudzha, showed Ukrainian soldiers climbing atop a building and removing a Russian flag, shouting “Glory to Ukraine!”
Russians in Moscow told AFP they were concerned by Ukraine’s operation, which caught the Kremlin off guard.
“I have relatives living there and they refuse to leave. It’s really hard,” said salesperson Yulia Rusakova.
“This whole situation is a big blow. It’s very hard to lead a normal, calm life, knowing that such things are happening there,” she said.
Olga Raznoglazova, a 36-year-old account manager visiting from the Kursk region, said she felt the operation had brought the war closer.
“Now, when it is happening right next door to us … it is a completely different feeling,” she said. “It’s very worrying.”
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.
On the Ukraine side of a border with Kursk, 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 in a military vehicle 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 Sumy region.
“They only had anti-personnel mines scattered around trees at the side of the road and a few mines that they managed to quickly throw along the highways,” he said.
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.
The operation was the “largest attack on Russian military airfields” during the war and aimed to stop them being used to launch strikes, the source said.