Ukraine’s top military commander on Monday said that Kyiv’s forces control about 380 square miles of Russia’s Kursk region following a cross-border invasion, while Russian President Vlaidimir Putin vowed to push them out.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy published a video of top military leader Oleksandr Syrskyi delivering a report on the fighting in Kursk.
“We continue to conduct an offensive operation in the Kursk region. Currently, we control about 1,000 square kilometers of the territory of the Russian Federation,” he said in the video.
In social media posts Monday, Zelenskyy praised his country’s soldiers and commanders “for their steadfastness and decisive actions.” He did not elaborate but suggested that Ukraine would offer humanitarian assistance in the area of fighting.
The Ukrainians “have embarked on the path of exterminating the Ukrainians themselves,” he said, adding that they will “certainly receive a worthy response” from Russia.
The Russian president added it appeared that Ukraine was trying to improve its negotiating position in the war, but that there could be no question of negotiations with an enemy he accused of targeting civilians in its operation in the Kursk region.
Putin’s comments Monday were the most detailed he has made so far since Ukraine staged its cross-border attack starting on Aug. 6.
Moscow has deployed more troops to deal with the Kursk incursion, said the Russian Ministry of Defense in statements carried by state media and on social media. It did not elaborate on the numbers or what sorts of force are being deployed. He said Ukraine was trying to slow Russia’s advance on other parts of the battle front, but that Moscow’s forces were still advancing.
“The forces of the military communications service have organized the delivery of additional ... assets to build up the group of forces and form reserves,” the defense ministry said on Monday, adding that “heavy tracked vehicles” are being delivered to areas blocking Ukraine’s forces.
On Sunday, Zelenskyy for the first time confirmed that the country’s military forces are operating in Russia amid days of reports of fighting in Kursk. In a nightly address, he said that the war was now being expanded into Russia, although he did not provide any more details.
The incursion is the most significant one since the Russia–Ukraine war started in February 2022. Earlier this year, in March, a smaller number of Ukrainian-backed forces breached multiple areas along the border in Kursk and Belgorod but were pushed back by Russia.
Ukraine has not publicly disclosed the objective of the operation, which has caught Russia off guard after months of gradual Russian advances in eastern Ukraine.
An update provided by the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said that Ukraine’s operation in Kursk as given Kyiv a temporary reprieve and has allowed them to push back against Russia’s advances overall.
It noted that the Russian military may have “ incorrectly assessed that Ukraine lacked the capability” to contest Moscow’s battlefield initiative, challenging the country’s efforts in Ukraine.
So far, the White House has issued few comments on the Ukrainian incursion.
“I’m going to refrain from characterizing what’s going on on the ground here until those conversations are complete and we feel like we have a better idea of what they’re doing,” he also said.
