Kyiv:
Ukrainian forces advanced further into Russia’s Kursk region on Wednesday, as Kiev said the area would serve as a buffer zone to protect its border areas from Russian attacks.
Kiev’s surge into Russian territory last week caught Moscow by surprise and, for now at least, changed the mood of a war in which Russian forces launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 have made steady gains all year.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy met with top officials to discuss the humanitarian situation and the possible establishment of military commands in an occupied area that Ukraine says exceeds 1,000 square kilometers (390 square miles).
“We continue to advance further into the Kursk region,” Zelensky wrote in the Telegram, “from one to two kilometers in various areas since the beginning of the day. And more than 100 Russian prisoners of war during the same period.”
Interior Minister Ihor Klimenko said the creation of a “buffer zone” was “designed to protect our border communities from daily enemy attacks.”
Russia has been pounding Ukraine with raids launched from adjacent border territories, including the Kursk region.
Ukraine complains that it is struggling to defend itself against such attacks because of the need to respect Western countries’ conviction about using their weapons against the Russian hinterland and not against its forces in occupied Ukraine.
Also read: Ukraine continues to advance in Russia’s Kursk region
Carving out a piece of the Kursk region — which Russia places at less than half the area claimed by Ukraine — will help that end.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has vowed to push back Ukrainian troops, who he says aim, with Western backing, to give Kiev a stronger hand in possible future ceasefire talks. But more than a week of intense fighting has so far failed to dislodge them.
“The situation remains difficult,” said Yuri Podoliaka, a powerful Ukrainian-born pro-Russian military blogger.
“The enemy still has the initiative and thus, albeit slowly, is increasing its presence in the Kursk region.”
Moscow said 117 Ukrainian drones were shot down in Russia overnight, mostly in the Kursk, Voronezh, Belgorod and Nizhny Novgorod regions. He said missiles had also been shot down and showed Sukhoi Su-34 bombers striking what he said were Ukrainian positions in the Kursk region.
Later, the defense ministry said Russian forces had repelled a series of Ukrainian attacks inside the Kursk region, including Russkoye Porechnoye, 18 km (11 miles) from the border, and some pro-Russian war bloggers said the front had stabilized .
State television said Moscow’s forces were turning the tide, showing footage of attacks on Ukrainian positions and evacuations of Russian civilians.
The security of the Kusrsk nuclear plant has been increased
Some of the Ukrainian drones attacked four Russian military airfields in an attempt to undermine Russia’s ability to attack Ukraine with cruise bombs, a Ukrainian security source said. Reuters under the condition of anonymity. Ukraine’s military also said it destroyed a Russian Su-34.
Russia’s National Guard said it was beefing up security at the Kursk nuclear power plant, located just 35 kilometers (22 miles) from the fighting.
And in the Russian border region of Belgorod, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov declared a state of emergency.
Russia says it has already evacuated about 200,000 people from the border zone.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Kiev would open humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians, “both in the direction of Russia and in the direction of Ukraine.”
Ukrainian officials said Kiev would also arrange access to international humanitarian organizations, likely to include the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations.
Read: Ukraine invasion a ‘real dilemma’ for Putin: Biden
The unprecedented invasion poses major risks for Russia, Ukraine and the West, which wants to avoid a direct conflict between Russia and the US-led NATO military alliance that helped arm Ukraine.
US President Joe Biden said US officials were in constant contact with Kiev about the invasion, although the White House said Washington had received no advance notice and had no involvement.
Russian officials say Ukraine’s Western backers must have known about the attack. “Of course they are involved,” said MP Maria Butina Reuters.
The offensive could also leave Ukrainian forces more exposed elsewhere on the front, where Russia has slowly added to the 18 percent of Ukrainian territory it now controls.
Ukraine’s top commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said the Russian city of Sudzha, a transshipment hub for Russian gas flowing to Europe via Ukraine, was fully under Ukrainian control. Natural gas was still flowing Wednesday.
The Russian ruble fell against the dollar on Wednesday, losing more than 8% since the invasion began.
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