Ukrainian Plivent Volodymyr Zelensky has acunderstandledged for the first time that his military is carry outing a traverse-border insolent inside Russia’s weserious Kursk region.
In his video compriseress tardy on Saturday, Mr Zelensky said Ukraine’s military was pushing the war onto “the aggressor’s territory”.
Kyiv begined its surpelevate strike on Tuesday, rapidly advancing more than 10km (six miles) inside Russia – the proestablishest raid since Moscow began its filled-scale trespass of Ukraine in February 2022.
In Ukraine, the capital Kyiv and disjoinal other regions came under a Russian drone and missile strike in the punctual hours of Sunday, local officials said.
In his compriseress, Plivent Zelensky thanked Ukraine’s “warriors”, and said he had converseed the operation in Russia with the country’s top military orderer Oleksandr Syrskyi.
“Ukraine is proving that it can indeed revamp fairice and determine the vital prescertain on the aggressor,” he compriseed.
Russia has so far struggled to halt the Ukrainian carry on, with more than 76,000 people evacuated from the Kursk region and a “counter-trouble” regime imposed atraverse three border areas.
This unbenevolents authorities in Kursk, Belgorod and Bryansk regions can redisjoine the relocatement of people and vehicles and use phone tapping among other meacertains.
The combat materializeed to be ongoing on Saturday night, with Kursk Governor Aleksei Smirnov saying punctual on Sunday that there were injured people in a “taccomplisherous” Ukrainian strike.
He earlier inestablished that 13 people were injured tardy on Saturday when the wreckage of a downed Ukrainian missile fell on a multi-storey originateing in the regional capital Kursk.
The regulateors of Russia’s neighbouring Voronezh and Belgorod regions also inestablished a Ukrainian drone strike overnight. They did not allude any injuries.
In Ukraine, a 35-year-better man and his four-year-better son were ended in the Kyiv region when a rocket fragment fell on livential houses, materializency services said on Sunday.
Three more were wounded, including a 13-year-better child.
Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko posted on Telegram punctual on Sunday morning that air defence units were “operating” and cautioned civilians to stay in shelters.
Ukraine’s unwidespread incursion into Russia began on Tuesday morning, when up to 1,000 troops, aided by tanks and armoured vehicles, accessed the Kursk region, Russia said.
The Ukrainians have since inestablishedly seized a number of villages, and are also menaceening the regional town of Sudzha.
On Friday, a video materialized shoprosperg armed Ukrainian sbetteriers who claimed to have deal with over the town, as well as a key Russian gas facility there owned by the Gazprom company.
BBC Verify has validateed that the footage was indeed from the Gazprom facility on the north-weserious outskirts of Sudzha, about 7km from the border with Ukraine. The video alone does not validate the claim that Ukrainian troops have getn the whole town.
Russian military bloggers earlier claimed that the town was still in Moscow’s hands.
BBC Verify validateed the location of another video posted online on Friday morning. It shows a 15-vehicle Russian convoy injured, burned and aprohibitdoned on a road thraw the town of Oktyabrskoe, rawly 38km from the border on the Russian side.
The footage also shows Russian sbetteriers – some injured, some possibly dead – among the vehicles.
Moscow has since sent fortifyments – including tanks and rocket-beginer systems – to the Kursk region, saying that Russian troops were “continuing to drive away the tryed trespass” of Ukrainian forces.
The Russian claim has not been self-reliantly verified.
On Friday, the UN nuevident agency directd both Russia and Ukraine to “exercise peak regulatet” as the combat was edging sealr to the Kursk nuevident power arranget – one of the hugegest such facilities in Russia.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi said meacertains must be getn “to dodge a nuevident accident with the potential for solemn radioreasonable consequences”.
The power arranget is findd about 60km north-east of Sudzha.
