Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has acknowledged that his army has launched a military offensive on Russian soil.
In a speech broadcast on Saturday evening, Zelensky said the Ukrainian military was taking the war into the “aggressor’s territory.”
Kyiv launched a surprise attack on its neighbor on Tuesday through the border region of Kursk (in western Russia) and managed to quickly advance more than 10 kilometers inside Russia.
The action represents the deepest incursion into Russian soil launched by Ukrainian forces since the Kremlin began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The Ukrainian offensive, however, has not kept the fighting away from its territory. Thus, in the early hours of Sunday, The capital Kyiv and several other Ukrainian cities were attacked by the Russian army with drones and missiles, local officials said.
Clearing up doubts
In his speech, Zelensky thanked Ukraine’s “warriors” and said he had discussed the operation in Russia with the country’s top military commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi.
“Ukraine is proving that it really can restore justice and ensure the necessary pressure on the aggressor,” the president added.
Although the Kremlin has claimed to have neutralised the Ukrainian incursion, on the ground it appears to be having trouble stopping the advance of Kyiv’s troops.
More than 76,000 people have been evacuated in the Kursk regionthe latest in the Belovsky district (about 110 kilometers south of the regional capital), reported the governor of the region, Aleksei Smirnov.
In other areas, however, residents have decided to leave without waiting for the authorities’ decision, confirmed the governor of the Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov.
“A large number of residents made the decision to temporarily leave Krasnaya Yaruga and nearby villages at night, although we had no information that evacuation was necessary, so such decisions were not taken and have not been taken yet,” Gladkov said.
The Russian Telegram channel “Two Majors”, critical of the Russian military leadership, claimed that Ukrainian forces had “advanced on a broad front” in the Belovsky district and that “Everything around the center of the Belaya district is occupied by the enemy”the BBC Russian Service reported.
Moscow, for its part, has imposed an “anti-terrorist” regime in three border areas with Ukraine to deal with the situation.
The decision means that authorities in the Kursk, Belgorod and Bryansk regions can restrict the movement of people and vehicles and intercept telephone calls, among other measures.
The fight does not stop
Fighting continued on Saturday evening. TASS reported four explosions over the city of Kursk, with another ten reported throughout the day, the BBC Russian service reported.
For his part, Governor Smirnov said on Sunday morning that 13 people were injured in a “treacherous” Ukrainian attack.
The injuries occurred on Saturday evening when debris from a downed Ukrainian missile fell on a multi-storey building in the regional capital.
Authorities in the neighbouring regions of Voronezh and Belgorod also reported Ukrainian drone strikes overnight, but did not mention any casualties or injuries.
In Ukraine, a 35-year-old man and his four-year-old son were killed in the Kyiv region when a rocket fragment fell on residential houses, emergency services reported on Sunday.
Three more people were injured, including a 13 year old boy.
The mayor of the Ukrainian capital, Vitaliy Klitschko, posted on Telegram early Sunday that air defense units were “operating” and warned civilians to stay in shelters.
Invading invader
Ukraine’s unprecedented incursion into Russia began on Tuesday morning, when up to 1,000 of his soldierssupported by tanks and armoured vehicles, entered the Kursk border region, Russia said.
Until now, Kyiv has limited itself to providing support to dissident groups attempting similar actions or launching drones and missiles at Russian territory.
Since the start of the operation, it has been reported that the Ukrainian military has captured several villages and is also threatening the town of Sudzha.
On Friday, a video emerged showing armed Ukrainian soldiers claiming to have taken control of the town, as well as a important gas installation owned by the Russian state-owned company Gazprom.
BBC Verify has confirmed that the footage was indeed from the Gazprom facility, which is located outside Sudzha, about 7km from the Ukrainian border. The footage, however, does not substantiate the claim that Ukrainian troops have taken over the entire town.
Russian military bloggers have claimed that The town is still in the hands of Moscow..
BBC Verify has confirmed the location of another video posted online on Friday morning, showing a destroyed Russian convoy.
In the recording you can see a row of 15 vehicles burned and abandoned on a road which runs through the town of Oktyabrskoe, approximately 38 kilometers from the border on the Russian side.
The images also show Russian soldiers, some wounded, others possibly dead, in the wreckage.
Moscow has sent reinforcements, including tanks and rocket launchers, to the Kursk region and said its Russian troops “continue to repel the attempted invasion” by Ukrainian forces.
The statements by Russian officials could not be independently verified.
They ask for concern
The United Nations nuclear agency called on Russia and Ukraine to “exercise maximum restraint” as fighting neared Kursk nuclear power plant, one of the largest facilities of its kind in Russia.
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, called for measures to be taken “to avoid a nuclear accident with the potential for serious radiological consequences.”
The power plant is located about 60 kilometers northeast of the Russian town of Sudzha.
*With information from Jaroslav Lukiv, Sofia Ferreira Santos and the BBC Russian Service
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