Volodymyr Zelensky says Ukraine ‘strengthening’ positions in Russia’s Kursk

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says his forces were “strengthening” their positions in Russia’s Kursk region, where Kyiv has been mounting a major ground offensive.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky at an undisclosed location in Ukraine, amid the Russian invasion. Picture: Ukrainian Presidential Press Service / AFP

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday his forces were “strengthening” their positions in Russia’s Kursk region, where Kyiv has been mounting a major ground offensive in counter-attack against the invasion ordered by Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin.

His comments come a day after Russian officials accused Ukraine of destroying a key bridge across the River Seym that cuts through the border region, as Kyiv seeks to disrupt the movement of Moscow’s troops in the area.

Ukrainian forces operating in Russia’s Kursk region destroyed a bridge over the Seym River near the town of Glushkovo on Friday. Picture: Ukrainian Air Force via Storyful

Ukrainian army chief Oleksandr Syrsky “reported on the strengthening of the positions of our forces in the Kursk region and the expansion of stabilised territory”, Mr Zelensky said in a post on Telegram.

“As of this morning, we have replenished the exchange fund for our country,” Mr Zelensky said, referring to Russian soldiers Ukraine has captured to be used in future prisoner swaps.

“I thank all the soldiers and commanders who are taking Russian soldiers prisoner and thus bringing the release of our soldiers and civilians held by Russia closer,” Mr Zelensky said.

Ukraine’s army launched its surprise offensive into Russia on August 6, claiming to capture several dozen villages in the biggest cross-border attack on Russian soil since World War II.

War-displaced people receive humanitarian aid at a Russian Red Cross distribution point in Kursk following Ukraine's offensive. Picture: Tatyana Makeyeva / AFP

Mr Zelensky separately said the situation on the eastern front near the towns of Pokrovsk and Toretsk was “under control”, after Russia reported it had made a string of advances towards them in recent weeks.

“(There were) dozens of Russian assaults on our positions over the last day. But our soldiers and units are doing everything to destroy the occupier and repel the attacks,” Mr Zelensky said.

Kyiv claims to have taken control of more than 80 settlements in the lightning incursion, which caught the Kremlin off guard almost two and a half years into its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

This photograph taken Friday during a media tour organised by Ukraine shows a damaged building in the Ukrainian-controlled Russian town of Sudzha, Kursk region. Two and a half years into Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Kyiv's troops on August 6 launched a major counter-offensive into Russia's Kursk region, sending more than 120,000 people fleeing. Picture: Yan Dobronosov / AFP

The Russian defence ministry said on Saturday it had pushed back Ukrainian forces near three settlements in the Kursk region, and was searching for “mobile enemy groups” trying to pierce deeper into the country.

It said it had repelled Ukrainian forces near the town of Korenevo and the villages of Russkoye and Cherkasskoye Porechnoye in the Kursk border region.

Ukrainian attacks “were repelled in the direction of the settlements of Korenevo, Russkoye and Cherkasskoye Porechnoye”, the Russian defence ministry said.

Russian officials on Friday accused Ukraine of striking a strategically important bridge just a couple dozen kilometres away from fighting in the Kursk region.

The region’s governor, Alexei Smirnov, said on Friday evening the bridge was in the Glushkovsky district, some 11 kilometres away from the border.

An aerial video published by Ukrainian air force commander Mykola Oleshchuk appeared to show the bridge being hit by a projectile at high speed before collapsing in a cloud of smoke.

“Ukrainian pilots are conducting precision strikes on enemy strongholds, equipment concentrations, as well as on enemy logistics centres and supply routes,” he said on Telegram.

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the bridge was “completely destroyed” and that “volunteers providing assistance to the evacuated civilian population were killed”.

“All those responsible for these inhumane acts will be severely punished,” she said.

Russia separately accused Ukraine on Saturday of dropping an explosive charge on a road near the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine.

The plant, which was seized by Russia’s forces early in the war, has come under repeated attacks that both sides have accused each other of carrying out.

Russia meanwhile attacked at least four Ukrainian regions on Saturday, according to officials, including the northeastern region of Kharkiv, where prosecutors said shelling killed a 49-year-old woman.

While the incursion has delivered a major morale boost to Kyiv, it appears to have had little impact on the larger battles raging in Russian-occupied parts of eastern Ukraine.

Russia said Friday its forces had captured another village near Pokrovsk, a Ukrainian-held logistics hub that lies on a road supplying troops and towns across the eastern front.

Russian forces have been inching towards the town for months, taking a string of tiny villages over the past weeks.

The head of Pokrovsk’s military administration, Sergiy Dobryak, warned on Thursday that Russia was a little over 10 kilometres from the outskirts of the city and urged remaining residents to evacuate.

AFP