On Tuesday, Ukraine launched new aircraft assaults on Russia’s Kursk border region, a moment after Vladimir Putin criticized the West for backing Kyiv’s surprise invasion into Russian territory.
Russia’s defence ministry said its air defence units destroyed 12 drones over the Kursk region, which Ukraine attacked a week ago and claims to have captured 1, 000 square kilometres ( 386 square miles ) by Monday.
Putin claimed on Monday that the largest invasion against Ukraine since he launched Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 was intended to strengthen Kyiv’s place in negotiating terms ahead of potential peace deals.
In one of his most in-depth public statements to date about the problems, he added that Kyiv is” with the help of its American experts” attempting to halt the advance of Russian troops in what the Kremlin refers to as a” special military operation” in Ukraine.
He also questioned whether negotiations could be had with an adversary he claimed fired blindly at Russian citizens and nuclear services.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, was informed on Monday that the country’s best captain Oleksandr Syrskyi’s troops were moving further into Russian territory.
” The Kursk area is still the site of our unpleasant activity. Now, we control about 1, 000 square miles of the country of the Russian Federation”, he said in a video published on Zelenskyy’s Telegram account.
Neither Reuters nor Reuters was able to check the allegations.
The acting governor of Kursk, Alexei Smirnov, said Ukraine controlled 28 settlements in the region, and the incursion was about 12 km ( 7.5 miles ) deep and 40 km ( 25 miles ) wide.
In Kursk, 121, 000 people had now left or have been evacuated and another 59, 000 were in the process of being evacuated, regional authorities said. In Russia’s Belgorod area, which borders Kursk, 11, 000 residents were also evacuated, the country’s government said.
Ukrainian forces in Kursk were trying to encircle Sudzha, where Russian natural gas flows into Ukraine, while major battles were under way near Korenevo, about 22 km ( 14 miles ) from the border, and Martynovka, according to some military bloggers.
Russia launched 38 strike drones and two nuclear weapons overnight, according to Ukraine’s air pressure on Tuesday. Early on Tuesday, there were a few brief air raid emails for the entire nation, but they were canceled.
