"Kursk buffer zone"

Selensky praises offensive in Russia

Kronstadt outside St. Petersburg is an impressive reminder of the Second World War.

(Bild: ASSOCIATED PRESS)

The Russian offensive on Russian territory near Kursk has been underway for five months. According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi, one important effect of the operation near Kursk is that Russia has deployed its strongest units there, including soldiers from North Korea.

"We are maintaining a buffer zone on Russian territory and are actively destroying the Russian military potential there," Selensky explained in his evening video address. Russia had already lost 38,000 soldiers in the course of the operation and its counter-offensive, 15,000 of whom had been killed.

It was not possible to independently verify this figure, as neither of the warring parties reported their own losses. "It is important that the occupier cannot now send all these forces to our other areas, especially to the Donetsk region, especially against Sumy, especially to Kharkiv or Zaporizhia," Selensky explained.

The current situation in eastern Ukraine was discussed at a meeting of the General Staff. According to Selensky, the defense of the city of Pokrovsk on the edge of the Donbass was to be strengthened in particular. "The Pokrovsk thrust has been one of the hottest in the past four weeks," said Viktor Trehubov, spokesman for the brigade of Ukrainian units fighting there. However, the Russian attackers were unable to "achieve the kind of success that would allow them to directly threaten the city of Pokrovsk itself".

Kiev remains silent on Kurakhove
Selenskyi did not mention the situation near Kurakhove at all. According to the Ministry of Defense in Moscow, Russian troops have captured the strategically important small town. This means that the most populous town in the south-west of the Donbass region has been captured, according to the press release. Following the capture of Kurakhove, the Russian forces had advanced into open maneuver terrain. This allows the pace of the conquest of further areas to be increased.

There was no confirmation of this from the Ukrainian side. The General Staff in Kiev reported further battles in the Kurakhove region in its daily situation report in the evening, although the aforementioned combat areas of Slovyanka, Petropavlivsk and Datschne were already west of the small town of Kurakhove. Russian air strikes were concentrated on the village of Andriyivka, around ten kilometers away. It is still unclear where the Ukrainian forces have set up the next line of defense.

The fighting for Kurakhove lasted around two months. The Ukrainians were thus able to hold the town for longer than experts had actually assumed. Only a fraction of the former 18,000 inhabitants remained. A large part of the town is now just a pile of rubble after the heavy fighting. Moscow's losses are considered high.

Russian combat drone hits bus in Kherson
A bus was hit in a Russian drone attack on the southern Ukrainian port city of Kherson. One man was killed and several other people were injured, regional military administrator Roman Mrochko announced on Telegram. According to official information, six passengers on the bus were injured, including five women. One municipal official was killed in the explosion.

A few hours earlier, a Russian combat drone had seriously injured three police officers in the eastern Ukrainian region of Kharkiv. As the regional military administrator Oleh Synjehubow reported, the police officers had been attacked by a "Molnija-1" (Blitz) combat drone, which is mainly made of plywood.