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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday his country is meeting its objectives with its nearly two-week offensive into Russia’s Kursk region, creating a “buffer zone” against more Russian attacks and troop movements from just across the border into Ukraine.
“We are achieving our goals,” Zelenskyy said.
Kyiv sent troops over the border on August 6 in a surprise attack, Ukraine’s biggest such assault since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
While Ukrainian troops struggle on the country’s eastern front, Kyiv also said the incursion into Russian territory was aimed at forcing Moscow to negotiate on “fair” terms when any eventual peace talks are held to end the war, even though none is currently scheduled. Ukraine says it has captured hundreds of Russian military conscripts from the Kursk region.
In eastern Ukraine, however, Kyiv’s troops were not faring as well.
Ukrainian local authorities issued a mandatory evacuation order for families with children from the eastern city of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk province, where 53,000 people still live.
The authorities said Russian forces are advancing so quickly that families must leave the city and other nearby towns for their safety. Russian troops have been pushing toward Pokrovsk for months and now are just 10 kilometers from the city’s outskirts.
Ukrainian defenders have pulled back from positions destroyed by Russian artillery, missiles and bombs. One of Kyiv’s attempts to ease the pressure in eastern Ukraine was the incursion into Russia’s Kursk region.
Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, said Monday that “heavy battles” were taking place in the Pokrovsk area.
The nearby town of Toretsk, whose capture would open the door for a Russian advance on the key stronghold of Chasiv Yar from the south, is also under heavy pressure, he said.
The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said Sunday that Russian forces have been advancing roughly two square kilometers per day in the Pokrovsk region over the last six months.
Even with the Russian advances, Zelenskyy in his nightly address on Sunday praised the military’s efforts to repel attackers.
“In just one day, there have been dozens of attacks, but our units, our brigades, are doing everything to hold the positions,” he said.
Zelenskyy said Kyiv’s troops destroyed Russian equipment near Toretsk.
Pokrovsk is one of Ukraine’s main defensive strongholds and a key logistics hub in the Donetsk region. Its capture would compromise Ukraine’s defensive abilities and supply routes and bring Russia closer to its stated aim of capturing the entire Donetsk region.
Pokrovsk officials were meeting with the residents to provide them with logistical details on the evacuation. People were offered shelter in western Ukraine, where they will be hosted in dormitories and separate houses prepared for them.
Meanwhile, air defense units near Kyiv were working to repel a Russian air attack early Monday, according to Ukrainian military officials.
The airstrikes followed Sunday’s ballistic missile attack on the Ukrainian capital.
“This is already the third ballistic strike on the capital in August, with exact intervals of six days between each attack,” Serhiy Popko, head of the Kyiv military administration, said on the Telegram messaging app.
Ukraine’s air force commander, Mykola Oleshchuk, said Russia launched eight missiles Sunday morning, including three ballistic, three cruise and two guided aircraft missiles. Ukraine shot down five of them, he said.
Some information for this report came from Reuters, Agence France-Presse and The Associated Press.
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