Kiev pays high price

Selensky names final goal for invasion for the first time

A Ukrainian soldier in the center of the Russian city of Sudzha.

(Bild: AP)

On Sunday evening, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky named a concrete goal for the advance of his troops in the western Russian region of Kursk for the first time: "The creation of a buffer zone on the territory of the aggressor." Meanwhile, Russian troops in the Donbass are launching a counterattack.

In view of the heavy fighting there and in eastern Ukraine, he asked his Western partners in his evening video address for a quick supply of weapons and ammunition.

"The war knows no vacation", said Selensky, addressing the USA, Great Britain and France in particular. The Ukrainian soldiers were doing an "excellent job", Selensky said, "but we need to speed up the supply from our partners, we are asking for it." Ukraine needs solutions and is particularly dependent on the promised aid packages arriving on time.

Situation in Donbass is coming to a head
The Ukrainian units appear to be coming under heavy pressure, particularly in the areas around the Donbass. They have already had to withdraw from some places. The area around Torezk in particular is "more than just defense for Ukraine, it is now the main goal of our defense measures in general to destroy as much as possible of Russia's potential, the potential for war, and to carry out maximum counterattack work," Selensky emphasized.

Ukrainian military officials acknowledged the difficulties around Pokrovsk. "We can retreat, give up a small settlement or lose a small battle," said Serhiy Tsekhozkyi, an officer of the brigade deployed there, on television. "But the main task is to win the war."

Russians launch a counterattack
The Russian soldiers are currently advancing near Mykolaivka to cut off the supply route between Pokrovsk and Karlovka. "They are trying to achieve something here," said Zechozkyj. But it was precisely at this point that the Russian military was expecting "something unexpected". The officer did not give any details.

Torezk and Pokrovsk have been the permanent flashpoints in recent weeks. The Ukrainian General Staff also reported heavy fighting around the towns. During the course of the day, 24 Russian assault attacks were registered near Pokrovsk alone, some of which were supported by fighter jets. A total of 15 Russian attacks had been repulsed near Torezk. The information could not be independently verified.

The Ukrainian general's office in Kiev provided no information on the fighting in the western Russian region of Kursk. The situation report merely states that Russian artillery and fighter jets attacked Ukrainian positions around Sumy in the east of the country. Sumy is considered a supply center for the Ukrainian troops fighting in the Kursk region.

Substantial Ukrainian losses
The Ukrainian military suffered unusually high losses of valuable technology during its advance near Kursk, summarized the business magazine "Forbes". The losses of tanks, armored vehicles and heavy weapons were extremely high and disproportionate to the simultaneous losses on the Russian side.

The Ukrainian losses are apparently enormous, war bloggers also believe:

During the advance across open terrain, the vehicles were frequently exposed to air and artillery attacks, and accordingly the losses were "twice as high as usual", the paper referred to analysts. However, if Ukraine could hold the conquered territory, this would be worth the losses. Selensky had repeatedly complained about Russian missile and artillery attacks from the Kursk region against targets in eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine threatened with a new front
Ukraine is also threatened by a new front. Meanwhile, Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko has reportedly had larger troop units deployed to his country's border with Ukraine.