“I spoke with commander Oleksandr Chirsky and there are advances of our troops in the Kursk region. One to three kilometers. We have taken control of two more villages,” Zelensky announced in his daily message, adding that fighting was going on in “another village.”
Since August 6, Ukrainian forces have been waging an unprecedented ground offensive in the Russian border region of Kursk, while trying to contain advances by Moscow’s troops in the Donetsk region in the country’s east.
Along the Russian border, Kiev already claims control of more than 90 locations.
On Saturday, during a press conference, Zelensky said that during the “complicated” operation in Kursk, many objectives could not be publicly disclosed so as not to compromise its success, but that it was developing “in a very positive way.”
“First, the (prisoner) exchange fund is something that can be talked about publicly. It’s closed, which is positive. “Secondly, to suspend Russian operations in the north, a preventive strike, our operation accomplished this mission,” he enumerated.
Another motive, he insisted, was to show the world “the truth” about Russian President Vladimir Putin, who “doesn’t think about how to protect his people” but is expanding his control over Ukrainian territories.
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, under the argument that it was protecting a pro-Russian separatist minority in the east and had been “undermining” its neighbor since 1991 – after the breakup of the former Soviet Union. Moscow’s place of influence is moving closer to Europe and the West.
The war in Ukraine has already claimed tens of thousands of lives on both sides, and has been marked by Russia’s large-scale airstrikes against Ukrainian cities and infrastructure in recent months, while Kiev’s forces are on the nearby Russian border and targets on the Crimean peninsula, which was illegally annexed in 2014.