Ukraine says it is still advancing in Russia’s Kursk region

MOSCOW: Ukraine said on Tuesday (Aug 13) its biggest cross-border assault of the war to date had taken control of 74 settlements in Russia’s region of Kursk and was still advancing, making gains of one to three kilometres in the last 24 hours.Ukraine blindsided Moscow by pouring thousands of troops into the western Russian region of Kursk last week in a surprise operation that has given Ukraine its biggest battlefield gains since 2022 after months on the backfoot.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the operation had rounded up a number of Russian prisoners of war who could be swapped for captured Ukrainian fighters, touting what he described as a growing “exchange fund”.
“Despite difficult and intense battles, our forces continue to advance in the Kursk region, and our state’s ‘exchange fund’ is growing. Seventy-four settlements are under Ukrainian control,” Zelenskyy said.
“Preparations for our next steps continue,” he added, without elaborating.
Russian forces have been trying to advance for months on multiple fronts in the Donetsk region, taking advantage of their greater troop numbers to steadily inch forward towards cities like the Kyiv-held logistics hub of Pokrovsk.
For now, there is no sign of a letup for Ukraine in the east where Kyiv’s military said earlier it had recorded the largest number of battles with Russian forces on the Pokrovsk front in a single day since before the Kursk incursion.
Ukrainian military spokesman Dmytro Lykhoviy told Reuters they had noted a movement of Russian troops from Ukraine’s south to other areas, likely including Kursk, this week.
But he said the number of attacks had not reduced as a result and that it was too early to draw conclusions.