Kyiv’s incursion into Russian territory is designed to stop Moscow’s forces from firing shells across the border at Ukraine and to capture prisoners of war, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, as more Russians flee the advance.
In his nightly address to his nation late Monday, Zelenskyy said Ukraine was targeting “the areas from which the Russian army launches strikes on our Sumy,” adding that almost 2,100 shells had been fired from Russia’s Kursk region since June 1. “Therefore, our operations are purely a security matter for Ukraine — the liberation of the border area from the Russian military.”
”It is only fair to destroy Russian terrorists where they are, where they launch their strikes from,” Zelenskyy said, adding that Ukraine’s strategy would also enable it to “replenish” the prisoner-of-war “exchange fund” and enable Kyiv to “return all our people from Russian captivity.”
The message appeared designed to assuage the concerns of some of Ukraine’s Western allies, who are hesitant about their weapons being used in the operation. Kyiv is pushing the U.K. to allow it to use British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles in the assault in Kursk, but the Brits are thus far holding firm, according to the Telegraph, with a Downing Street spokesperson telling POLITICO’s London Playbook “we are clear that equipment provided by the U.K. is intended for the defense of Ukraine.”
But U.S. Senators Lindsey Graham (a Republican) and Richard Blumenthal (a Democrat) cheered Kyiv’s move to improve its negotiating position as Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion continues into its third year.
“Ukraine’s decision to go on the offensive in the Kursk region of Russia was bold and brilliant,” the two senators said in a statement issued after they traveled to Ukraine and met with Zelenskyy on Monday. “We are more hopeful than ever that the tide of war has turned against Putin and his cronies,” they added.
Meanwhile, evacuations continued in the Belgorod region — the second Russian area that Kyiv’s forces have advanced into. In an update on Telegram on Tuesday morning, Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said around 11,000 people had fled the Krasnoyaruzhsky district, out of 15,000 residents.
On Monday, Ukraine’s army chief General Oleksandr Syrskyi said Kyiv now controls about 1,000 square kilometers of the Kursk region, in a video briefing posted to Zelenskyy’s Telegram channel. “The troops are fulfilling their tasks. Fighting continues actually along the entire front line. The situation is under our control,” Syrskyi said, noting that the operation was ongoing.
Earlier Monday, Alexei Smirnov, Russia’s acting regional governor of Kursk, in a blunt admission during a briefing for Putin said Kyiv’s forces had control of 28 settlements and their penetration was about 12 kilometers deep and 40 kilometers wide, according to Russian state media. But reports from Russian military bloggers indicate that’s an underestimate.
Up to 180,000 Russian civilians are being evacuated from regions near the border with Ukraine as the Kremlin scrambles to deal with Kyiv’s surprise incursion.
The Ukrainian attack came after months of slow but steady advances by Russian forces in the east. Putin called it a “major provocation” aimed at improving Kyiv’s negotiating position, as it seeks to regain the momentum and boost morale.
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