Ukraine war latest: Zelensky says Kursk incursion has called Putin’s bluff

Ukrainian forces now control more than 1,250 square kilometres and 92 settlements in Russia’s Kursk region, Volodymyr Zelensky announced last night.

He urged Ukraine’s allies to permit it to use Western weapons to strike deep inside Russia, saying the lack of that permission was the main reason for Ukraine not being able to stop Moscow’s advances on the frontline in the east.

“The naive, illusory concept of so-called red lines regarding Russia, which dominated the assessment of the war by some partners, has crumbled apart in these days somewhere near Sudzha,” he said in an address to ambassadors, referring to the border town in Russia’s Kursk region currently under Ukrainian control.

Kyiv says its Kursk incursion is aimed at carving out a buffer zone and wearing down Russia’s war machine.

Last week, the Ukrainian president had said his forces were already in control of 74 settlements inside Kursk. More than 121,000 people have been evacuated from nine border districts in the Kursk region, Russia’s emergencies ministry said. This is the biggest incursion inside Russia since the Second World War.

Ukraine is facing a tough battle near Pokrovsk, a transport hub for Ukrainian forces in the country’s east.

Russian troops are now around 10km (6 miles) from the outskirts of the city, said Serhiy Dobriak, head of the local military administration. He said up to 600 people were leaving on a daily basis, and that municipal services could be cut off within a week as Russian forces close in.

Regional governor Vadym Filashkin said a curfew in settlements close to Pokrovsk had been tightened and the situation was “very difficult”.

Ukraine’s top general said Kyiv was also “doing everything necessary” to defend the eastern city of Toretsk as Moscow tries to threaten Ukrainian supply lines. Russia said its forces had captured the nearby town of Zalizne.

Despite Ukraine’s successful incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, the assault by Russian forces in eastern Ukraine shows no sign of letting up. Kyiv expects Moscow to boost its forces in Ukraine to 800,000 by the end of the year, up from around 600,000 now, Ukrainian deputy defence minister Ivan Havryliuk told Ukrainian media.

Ukrainian troops are being subjected to dozens of attacks a day by Russian forces around Toretsk and Pokrovsk, two settlements in eastern Ukraine where Moscow is gaining ground, military officials said yesterday evening.

Eastern Ukraine is still seeing intense fighting as Russia looks to capture territory further inside its smaller neighbour, despite Kyiv’s successful incursion into Russia’s Kursk region next door.

Russian troops attacked Ukrainian defenders 21 times over the course of Monday in the Toretsk area, with some of the attacks still ongoing after nightfall, the military said in a statement.

It also said there were 63 skirmishes around Pokrovsk, a logistics hub, yesterday. The Pokrovsk front is the area with the most intense fighting in eastern Ukraine at present, with a record number of clashes reported last week.

Russia launched its fifth missile attack on Kyiv this month, Ukraine’s military said this morning with preliminary data showing air defence systems were again successful in repelling the strikes.

The morning strikes likely involved cruise missiles, the military said, adding that the full scope of the attack was not immediately known.

The missile attack followed a drone attack on Kyiv late last night, with preliminary information showing there was no damage or injuries as a result of either of the attacks, Kyiv’s military administration said. The drone attack was successfully repelled, authorities said.

Witnesses said they heard blasts from what sounded like air defence units in operation on Kyiv’s outskirts. The military said that the capital has been under 41 separate air raid alerts this month alone.

The bridge, located in the village of Karyzh on the River Seym, which runs parallel to the Ukrainian border, is said to have been damaged during an attack late on Sunday night.

Russian state media’s top propagandist, Vladimir Solovyov, published a video statement to his channel on the Telegram messenger app, from a representative of Russia’s Investigative Committee, confirming the bridge had been damaged on Monday morning.

It is highly unusual for Kremlin-approved state media reports to disclose information highlighting Russian military failures, and Moscow strictly controls what is and is not published. As with most Russian claims about strikes by Ukraine, the statement claimed the attack hit “residential buildings and civilian infrastructure” without providing any evidence whatsoever.

Belarus has sent aircraft, air defence forces and arms to its border with Ukraine, a day after president Alexander Lukashenko said he had deployed nearly a third of his country’s armed forces to the region.

Ukraine says it has not seen an increase in Belarusian troops on the border and called Lukashenko’s statements “rhetoric” aimed at pleasing Mr Putin, who used Belarus as a launchpad to start his invasion in Ukraine in February 2022.

“The group has been significantly increased, and at the moment they are on duty at the southern borders of our country,” Belarus’s air force chief Maj General Andrei Lukyanovich told the state-owned CTV broadcaster.

Aviation, anti-aircraft missile forces, and radio-technical troops were deployed to the border, Mr Lukyanovich said, according to a transcript provided on CTV’s website.

Belarus was also expecting more military aircraft deliveries from Moscow this year and Minsk is putting its efforts into strengthening its anti-drone systems, the senior Belarusian military official said.

“The fact that drones are the plague of the 21st century is obvious,” he said. “This is a headache, which, I think, we will find the means to counter.”

Days after Ukraine’s surprise incursion into Russia’s territory, Lukashenko – a loyal ally of Vladimir Putin – accused Kyiv of aggressive policies and of sending more than 120,000 of its troops to the border with Belarus.

Air defence units were engaged in trying to repel a Russian air attack on Kyiv this morning, the military administration of the Ukrainian capital said on Telegram.

Witnesses told Reuters they could hear blasts from what sounded like air defence units in operation. Any casualties due to the aerial attack were not immediately clear.

Cross-border drone and missile attacks by Russia have ravaged Ukraine for nearly 30 months since the start of Vladimir Putin’s invasion.