kyiv has assured that its objective is not to occupy Russian territories, but to protect its own population from Russian attacks that have often been launched from the Kursk region.
Russia said on Tuesday its forces stopped an attempt by Ukrainian troops to expand their incursion into the Kursk region, while a Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman said kyiv has no intention of occupying territory russian.
Russian Army units, including new reserves, aircraft, drone teams and artillery forces, prevented Ukrainian mobile armored groups They will go deeper into Russia nearly Kursk settlements of Obshchy Kolodez, Snagost, Kauchuk and Alexeyevsky, according to a statement from the Russian Ministry of Defense.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi said the cross-border operation was aimed at protecting Ukrainian territory of long-range attacks launched from Kursk.
“Ukraine is not interested in taking the territory of the Kursk region, but we want to protect the lives of our people,” Tykhyi was quoted as saying by local media. He added that Russia had launched more than 2,000 attacks from the Kursk region in recent months using anti-aircraft missiles, artillery, mortars, drones, 255 gliding bombs and more than 100 missiles.
Ukrainian Army Commander Oleksandr Syrskyi said in a video posted Tuesday on the president’s Telegram channel VolodÃmir Zelenski that Ukraine now controls 74 settlements in the Kursk region.
Ukrainian troops have continued to advance, gaining control of more than 40 square kilometers (15 square miles) of territory in the last 24 hours, Syrskyi said.
“The fighting continues along the entire front line. The situation, despite the high intensity of the fighting, is under control“he added.
Ukraine has “every right” to attack Russia, says Tusk
Ukraine’s Western partners have said that the country has the right to defend itselfeven attacking across the border. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Tuesday that he supported the Ukrainian operation, although he said officials in kyiv did not consult him about it beforehand.
Kremlin forces intensified their attacks in eastern Ukraine. Ukraine’s General Staff said on Tuesday that over the past 24 hours, Russian troops launched 52 attacks in the Pokrovsk areaa city in the Donetsk region of Ukraine that is close to the front line.
