Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said the military incursion into Russia’s Kursk region aims to create a buffer zone to prevent further attacks by Moscow across the border.
It is the first time Mr Zelenskiy has clearly stated the aim of the operation, which was launched on August 6th.
Previously, he had said the operation aimed to protect communities in the bordering Sumy region from constant shelling.
Mr Zelenskiy said in his nightly address “it is now our primary task in defensive operations overall: to destroy as much Russian war potential as possible and conduct maximum counteroffensive actions. This includes creating a buffer zone on the aggressor’s territory – our operation in the Kursk region”.
Ukraine’s air defence units repelled Russia’s overnight air attack, including on Kyiv, destroying all 11 drones that Moscow launched, targeting Ukraine’s territory, Ukraine’s air force said on Monday.
The drones were destroyed over the Mykolaiv, Cherkasy, Vinnytsia, Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Sumy and Donetsk regions, the air force said on the Telegram messaging app.
This weekend, Ukraine has destroyed a key bridge in the Kursk region and struck a second one nearby, disrupting supply lines as it pressed a stunning cross-border incursion that began on August 6th, officials said.
Pro-Kremlin military bloggers acknowledged that the destruction of the first bridge on the Syem River near the town of Glushkovo will impede deliveries of supplies to Russian forces repelling Ukraine’s incursion, although Moscow could still use pontoons and smaller bridges.
Ukraine’s air force chief, Lieut Gen Mykola Oleshchuk, on Friday released a video of an air strike that cut the bridge in two.
Less than two days later, Ukrainian troops hit a second bridge in Russia, according to Lieut Gen Oleshchuk and Russian regional governor Alexei Smirnov.
Russian Telegram channels claimed that a second bridge over the Seym, in the village of Zvannoe, had been struck. According to Russia’s Mash news site, the attacks left only one intact bridge in the area.
If confirmed, the Ukrainian strikes would further complicate Moscow’s attempts to replenish its forces in Kursk and evacuate civilians.
Ukraine’s commander in chief, Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, claimed last week that his forces had advanced across 1,000sq km (390 square miles) of the region, although it was not possible to independently verify what exactly Ukrainian forces effectively control.
Mr Zelenskiy said Ukrainian forces “achieved good and much-needed results”.
Analysts say that although Ukraine could try to consolidate its gains inside Russia, it would be risky, given Kyiv’s limited resources, because its own supply lines extending deep into Kursk would be vulnerable.
The incursion has proven Ukraine’s ability to seize the initiative and has boosted its morale, which was sapped by a failed counteroffensive last summer and months of grinding Russian gains in the eastern Donbas region.
The move into Kursk resembled Ukraine’s lightning operation from September 2022, led by Gen Syrskyi, in which its forces reclaimed control of the northeastern Kharkiv region after taking advantage of Russian manpower shortages and a lack of field fortifications.
On Saturday, Mr Zelenskiy urged Kyiv’s allies to lift the remaining restrictions on using western weapons to attack targets deeper in Russia, including in Kursk, saying his troops could deprive Moscow “of any ability to advance and cause destruction” if granted sufficient long-range capabilities.
Meanwhile, Russian ally Belarus has massed “nearly a third” of its army along its border with Ukraine, according to authoritarian president Alexander Lukashenko.
Mr Lukashenko told Russian state TV that Minsk was responding to the deployment of more than 120,000 Ukrainian troops to the 1,084km frontier.
– Agencies