Written by Oleksandr Kozhukhar
KIEV (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy acknowledged for the first time on Saturday that Ukrainian forces were fighting a surprise assault on the Russian city of Kursk, as attacks continued on the border region as authorities scrambled to evacuate people.
Moscow’s forces are fighting a sixth day of fierce fighting against Kiev’s biggest push into Russian territory since the start of the war, which has left southwestern parts of Russia vulnerable before reinforcements begin to arrive.
In a sign of the seriousness of the situation, Russia imposed a comprehensive security regime in three border regions on Saturday, while Belarus, a staunch ally of Moscow, sent more troops to its border with Ukraine, accusing Kyiv of violating its airspace.
Zelensky said in his nighttime video address that he discussed the operation with Ukraine’s top commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, and vowed to restore justice after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of its smaller neighbor in February 2022.
“Today I received several reports from Commander-in-Chief Syrskyi on the front lines and our actions to push the war into the territory of the aggressor,” Zelensky said, adding that “Ukraine is proving that it is indeed capable of restoring justice and ensuring the necessary pressure on the aggressor.”
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Sunday it had destroyed 14 Ukrainian drones and four Tochka-U tactical ballistic missiles overnight over the Kursk region, and 18 drones over other Russian regions frequently attacked by Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has described the Ukrainian attack – which military analysts say caught the Kremlin by surprise – as a major provocation.
The attacks had stopped, but Russia had been unable to push Ukrainian forces back across the border, Russian General Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the General Staff, said on Wednesday.
Russian military bloggers said the situation had stabilized after the Russian reinforcements, although they said Ukraine was rapidly mobilizing its forces.
Casualties and Evacuation
Early Sunday morning, officials in Kursk said 13 people were injured in the city after debris from a destroyed Ukrainian missile fell on a nine-story residential building.
It is not yet clear if there is any other damage. Moscow and Kiev rarely disclose the full extent of the damage they have suffered as a result of the attacks unless there are casualties or damage to residential buildings.
Acting Kursk Governor Alexei Smirnov ordered local authorities to speed up the evacuation of civilians from areas at risk. On Saturday, Russia’s state-run TASS news agency reported that more than 76,000 people had been evacuated.
Kiev and Moscow deny targeting civilians in their attacks in a war that has killed thousands of people, displaced millions of Ukrainians and has no end in sight.
Russian military bloggers say the fighting is taking place 20 kilometres (12 miles) deep inside the Kursk region, leading some to question why Ukraine was able to break through the Kursk region so easily.
After a father and his 4-year-old son were killed in a Russian air strike on the Kyiv region on Sunday, Zelensky’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak vowed more attacks on Russian military infrastructure, saying Moscow would accept “no other arguments.”
Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova said she had sent an appeal to the United Nations asking it to condemn Ukraine’s actions in Kursk.
In a post on Telegram, Moskalkova said she was asking the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to “take the necessary measures to prevent mass gross violations of human rights.”
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