Kyiv: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the northeastern border region of Sumy on Thursday, marking his first visit to the bordering area since his forces launched a large-scale incursion in Russia's Kursk region over two weeks ago. Zelenskyy said his forces have claimed control of another settlement in the Russian region of Kursk and taken more Russian prisoners of war whom he hopes to exchange for captured Ukrainians.
"In certain areas of the Kursk region under the control of Ukraine, there is one more settlement, and we have a replenishment of the exchange fund," he said in a meeting with his top military commander Oleksandr Syrskyi. He said there had been a decrease in shelling and in civilian casualties in the Sumy region since the Kursk operation.
The operation into the Kursk region has given a major morale boost to the Ukrainian military after months of slow but steady Russian gains in the east. While Ukraine is making gains in Kursk, it continues to lose ground in the eastern Donetsk region, as the Russian Defense Ministry announced Thursday that its military has claimed control of the village of Mezhove.
Putin threatens 'worthy response' to Kursk incursion
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Moscow will deliver a "worthy response" to the incursion, which he has described as a major provocation. Meanwhile, Ukraine also launched a drone attack on Russia's Marinovka military airfield in the southern Russian region of Volgograd, striking a storage site for fuel and glide bombs, according to a security source.
Russian troops have struggled to counter Ukraine's unprecedented incursion as Kyiv launched one of the largest ever drone attacks on Moscow on Wednesday, with Russian air defence units destroying 11 drones flying towards the capital. Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that according to preliminary information, there were no injuries or damage reported in the aftermath of the attacks.
The Wednesday attack on Moscow was part of a broader Ukraine drone attack on Russia with the Russian defence ministry saying its air defence units also destroyed 23 drones over the border region of Bryansk. Six drones were destroyed over Belgorod, another Russian region on the border with Ukraine, three over the Kaluga region, which borders the Moscow region to its northeast, and two over the embattled Kursk region, the ministry said.
Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said that Moscow was not ready to hold peace talks with Ukraine for now given Kyiv's attack on Russia's Kursk region, but that Russia was not withdrawing its earlier peace proposals. Ushakov made the comments in a video statement broadcast by the SHOT news outlet. "At this stage, given this venture (Kursk), we will not talk," said Ushakov.
How did Russia respond to Ukraine's attack?
The surprise foray by Ukraine was a much-needed boost to Kyiv's public morale when the country’s undermanned and under-gunned forces have faced relentless Russian attacks along the more than 1,000-kilometer front line. Caught off guard, Russian troops failed to mount a quick response to the incursion.
With the bulk of the Russian army engaged in the offensive in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, few troops were left to protect the Kursk border region. The Russian units along the frontier consisted mostly of poorly trained conscript soldiers, who were easily overcome by elite Ukrainian units.
An influential aide to the Kremlin and Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed the West and the US-led NATO alliance for direct involvement in Ukraine's surprise attack. "The operation in the Kursk region was also planned with the participation of NATO and Western special services," he said, despite Western powers denying involvement.
(with inputs from agencies)
