Ukraine continues to advance in the Kursk region of Russia

Kyiv:

Ukraine said on Tuesday that its biggest cross-border offensive of the war to date had taken control of 74 settlements in Russia’s Kursk region and was still advancing, making gains of between one and three kilometers in the past 24 hours.

Ukraine blindsided Moscow by pouring thousands of troops into Russia’s western Kursk region last week. The surprise operation gave Ukraine its biggest battlefield gains since 2022 after months on the back burner.

Kiev’s account confused the picture painted by Russia where Lt. Gen. Apti Alaudinov said Ukrainian troops had been halted, while the defense ministry said attacks were repelled in villages about 26 to 28 kilometers (16 to 17 miles) from borders.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Kiev forces were gathering Russian prisoners of war who could be exchanged for captured Ukrainian fighters, touting what he described as an expanding “exchange fund.”

“Despite difficult and intense fighting, our forces continue to advance in the Kursk region and our state’s ‘currency fund’ is growing. Seventy-four settlements are under Ukrainian control,” Zelensky said.

The Ukrainian leader, who appears to be speaking via video, asked his top commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, to develop the next “key steps” in the operation.

“Everything is going according to plan,” Syrskyi replied, without elaborating.

Kiev has revealed few details about its plans, in stark contrast to last year’s months-touted counterattack that ended up failing to breach well-prepared Russian defense lines.

A week after the start of the shock attack, Kursk regional governor Alexei Smirnov called on residents to show patience and character.

“I’ll say it straight: the crisis is not over yet,” he wrote on social media.

Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to respond to Ukraine with a “worthy response” and accused Kiev’s “Western masters” of helping Ukraine.

At the United Nations, Russia called on Kiev’s allies not to condemn the invasion.

US President Joe Biden, in his first substantive comments, said Washington was in constant contact with Kiev about the operation, although the White House earlier said it was not involved in any aspect of planning or preparation.

“It creates a real dilemma for Putin,” Biden said.

Ukraine has characterized the operation as defensive, saying its troops have taken control of areas used by Russia to launch more than 2,000 cross-border strikes since June.

“Ukraine is not interested in occupying the territory of the Kursk region, but we want to protect the lives of our people,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhii Tychy said.

No interruption for now

Russian forces have been trying for months to advance on multiple fronts in the eastern Donetsk region, taking advantage of their larger troop numbers to reach cities such as the Kiev-controlled logistics hub of Pokrovsk.

Tykhyi said: “It should be emphasized that the (Kursk) operation … helps the frontline because it does not allow Russia to move additional units to the Donetsk region, it complicates its military logistics.”

For now, there is no sign of a break in Ukraine in the east, where Kiev’s military said earlier it had recorded the highest number of battles with Russian forces on the Pokrovsk front in a single day since before the Kursk invasion.

Ukraine has noted that Russian troops are moving from the south to other areas, possibly including Kursk, this week, military spokesman Dmytro Likhovii told Reuters.

He said the number of attacks had not decreased as a result and it was too early to draw any conclusions.

On a trip to Kiev on Tuesday, Lithuanian Defense Minister Laurynas Kasciunas said Russia was moving troops from the Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad to reinforce Kursk.

Pasi Paroinen, an analyst with the Black Bird Group, said on Monday that Russia has relied mostly on nearby military units to try to push back Ukrainian forces.

“The Russians should have enough reserves so that they are not forced to weaken the group of ‘Center’ forces currently pushing Ukrainian lines near Toretsk and Pokrovsk,” he said.

Serhii Kuzan, president of the Ukrainian Center for Security and Cooperation, a non-governmental think tank, said the Ukrainian offensive was an “asymmetric” response to a war of attrition that Russia was trying to impose to exhaust Ukraine’s troops and resources.

The military on Tuesday restricted the movement of civilians within a 20-kilometer (12-mile) zone of the northeastern border region due to “an increase in the intensity of hostilities” and the activation of Russian sabotage and reconnaissance groups.

On Monday, Russia’s Kursk regional governor said Ukrainian forces were in control of 28 settlements in an incursion about 12 kilometers deep and 40 kilometers wide.

Although less than half Ukraine’s estimate of its gains, the Russian assessment was a dramatic public admission of a major setback more than 29 months since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of its smaller neighbor.

Reuters was unable to independently verify developments on the battlefield.

In his nightly address to Ukrainians, Zelensky said Ukraine had shown it could take the initiative as it did in 2022, the first year of the invasion when it regained swaths of land.

“Now we did exactly the same thing – we proved once again that we, Ukrainians, are capable of achieving our goals in any situation – capable of defending our interests and our independence,” he said.