Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the goals of a surprise attack by his military in Russian territory, stating Sunday that Kyiv is seeking to create a “buffer zone” in Russia to stop incoming soldiers.
Local reports first began revealing the presence of Ukrainian soldiers in Russia’s Kursk region on August 6, actively seizing uncontested Russian territory and threatening the neighboring region of Belgorod. Ukrainian authorities did not directly address or explain the seemingly abrupt change in military strategy for a week, offering only vague statements indicating that the Ukrainian leadership felt that Russians should “feel” the wages of war as Ukrainians have for over a decade.
Russian strongman Vladimir Putin first invaded and colonized part of Ukraine, its eastern Crimean peninsula, in March 2014 and has supported irregular separatist fighters in the eastern Donbass region since that year. Putin escalated his threat to the sovereignty of Ukraine to a full-scale invasion in February 2022, claiming that a “special military operation” was necessary to oust Zelensky on the grounds that his government was “Nazi.” Zelensky, Ukraine’s first-ever Jewish president and the descendant of World War II survivors, vehemently denied the accusations.
Putin has since annexed four more regions of Ukraine: Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Luhansk.
In his national address on Sunday, Zelensky said he was satisfied with the progress of his army’s counter-invasion of Russia so far and detailed that he believed the move was necessary to disempower the much larger Russian military.
“All this is more than just defense for Ukraine; it is now our primary task in defensive operations overall: to destroy as much Russian war potential as possible and conduct maximum counteroffensive actions,” Zelensky said, according to a translation of his remarks by the presidential office. “This includes creating a buffer zone on the aggressor’s territory – our operation in the Kursk region.”
“Everything that inflicts losses on the Russian army, Russian state, their military-industrial complex, and their economy,” the president continued, “helps prevent the war from expanding and brings us closer to a just end to this aggression – a just peace for Ukraine.”
Elsewhere in his speech, Zelensky said his “guys are doing great on all fronts,” but that they needed more support from the West.
“There are no vacations in war. Decisions are needed, as is timely logistics for the announced aid packages. I especially address this to the United States, the United Kingdom, and France,” he demanded.
The administration of leftist President Joe Biden has gifted Ukraine $55.4 billion since February 2022 and regular commits new security packages to Zelensky’s troops. It nonetheless faces continuous pressure not to cut the flow of weapons and funding.
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Zelensky has also attempted to persuade American authorities to remove limits on the Ukrainian army using its long-range weapons to attack targets deep into Russia.
“It is undoubtedly important for us that our partners remove the barriers that prevent us from weakening Russian positions as required by the course of the war,” Zelensky said on Saturday. “The long-range capabilities of our forces are the answer to all the most important, to all the most strategic issues of this war.”
The president promised to “intensify” diplomacy to encourage the United States, specifically, to grant approval of long-range attacks on Russia.
“We will insist on the need for bold steps, bold decisions. We need things that truly change the course of the war, leading it to a just peace, to a real conclusion – the kind of conclusion we need,” Zelensky insisted.
Russia first declared a federal-level state of emergency in Kursk on August 9, three days after the first reports of a Ukrainian military presence there. At the time, Zelensky did not speak of the operation directly, instead offering vague comments suggesting Russia should “feel what it has done” to Ukraine and applauding unspecified military moves as “exactly what our country needs.”
As fighting in Kursk and Belgorod has continued, however, Ukrainian officials have more openly spoken of the new war front and offered its estimates of progress into Russia. On Monday, the Ukrainian Armed Forces published a video on social media claiming that it now controls over 1,000 square kilometers (about 386 square miles) of territory in Kursk. The Ukrainians also accused Russian troops of hiding in residential areas, allegedly endangering their own civilians.
The Russian government has not denied that the Ukrainian counter-invasion poses a threat to its western border. The Russian news agency Tass reported on Monday that Ukrainian forces fired 156 “munitions” at Belgorod, the region less directly affected by the Ukrainian operation, between Sunday and Monday.
“Eight drones were shot down by the air defense system. One residential building, three private households, five cars, one social facility, two production enterprises and a communications infrastructure facility were damaged,” Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov was quoted as saying on social media.
While Ukrainian media accused Russia of hiding soldiers in civilian areas, Russian media accused Ukrainians of abducting civilian men “– some of them beaten, blindfolded, and with their hands tied – from private houses.” The accusation surfaced on the messaging application Telegram, shared by a senior Chechen military official.
Russian state propaganda outlet RT claimed, despite the accusation, that the Ukrainian counter-invasion was “quickly halted.” The outlet published an article on Saturday claiming that Ukrainian troops are “actively surrendering” to Russians in Kursk.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), an American think tank regularly publishing updates on the Ukraine war theater, reported on Sunday that the situation in Kursk is pressuring Russia to relocate troops away from other hotspots in eastern Ukraine. Citing anonymous “sources familiar” speaking to the Wall Street Journal, the ISW said some estimates suggest as many as 5,000 Russian soldiers have moved into Kursk from Ukraine.
“Russian redeployments have allowed Russian forces to slow initially rapid Ukrainian gains in Kursk Oblast and start containing the extent of the Ukrainian incursion,” ISW observed, “but containment is only the first and likely least resource-intensive phase of the Russian response in Kursk Oblast.”
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