Zelenskyy says Ukraine’s shock Kursk attack to pressure Russia and ‘restore justice’
SUMY REGION, Ukraine — President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine had launched an incursion into Russian territory to “restore justice” and pressure Moscow’s forces, in his first acknowledgement of Kyiv’s surprise offensive into the western Kursk region.
Moscow’s forces on Sunday were in their sixth day of intense battle against Kyiv’s largest incursion into Russian territory since the start of the war, which left southwestern parts of Russia vulnerable before reinforcement started arriving.
Russian authorities rushed to evacuate residents and imposed a sweeping security regime in three border regions on Saturday, after the attack which military analysts say caught the Kremlin off-guard. Belarus, a staunch ally of Moscow, also sent more troops to its border with Ukraine, accusing Kyiv of violating its air space.
In his nightly video address, Zelenskyy said he had discussed the operation with top Ukrainian commander Oleksandr Syrskyi, vowing to respond in kind after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of its neighbour in February 2022.
“Today, I received several reports from Commander-in-Chief Syrskyi regarding the front lines and our actions to push the war onto the aggressor’s territory,” he said late on Saturday.
“Ukraine is proving that it can indeed restore justice and is ensuring the exact kind of pressure that is needed — pressure on the aggressor.”
Russia’s defense ministry said on 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 that Ukraine frequently attacks.
In a statement, it called the ground incursion “barbaric” and said it made no military sense.
Ukraine has at most occupied several tens of square kilometers of Russian territory without laying claim to it, while Russia controls more than 100,000 sq km of Ukraine’s internationally recognized territory.
Russia’s top general, Valery Gerasimov, said on Wednesday the attacks had been halted, but Russia has not pushed the Ukrainian forces back over the border.
Russian military bloggers said the situation had stabilized after Russia’s reinforcements, though they said Ukraine was swiftly building up forces.
Zelenskyy said on Sunday Russia had launched nearly 2,000 cross-border strikes on Ukraine’s Sumy region from the region of Kursk this summer and that such strikes deserved a Ukrainian response.
Earlier, Kursk officials said 13 people were injured in the city after debris from a destroyed Ukrainian missile fell onto a nine-storey residential building.
An image posted by Kursk’s mayor showed flames rising through a shattered apartment block surrounded by charred debris.
It was not clear whether there was further damage. Moscow and Kyiv rarely disclose the full extent of damage inflicted by attacks on them unless there are injuries or damage to residential buildings.
