Ukraine's operation in Kursk going according to plan, says Zelenskyy

By Daryna Krasnolutska

 

Ukraine’s operation across the border into Russia’s Kursk region is going according to a plan that aimed to prevent Moscow’s attempts to occupy the northeastern city of Sumy, said President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.  
 

The incursion, which started in early August, was done to protect the Sumy region and also to capture Russian soldiers who could be used for prisoner swaps, Ukraine’s leader said. The first swap involving those Kursk-area POWs took place on Saturday with each side exchanging 115 soldiers. 

“I am looking very positively how this operation is going,” Zelenskiy told journalists in Kyiv, standing alongside Poland’s president and Lithuania’s prime minister, who visited the capital to mark Ukrainian Independence Day. 

“The operation is difficult but it is important that it is going according to our plan, Zelenskiy said, without elaborating further. 

Ukraine’s incursion, the first foreign military offensive inside Russia since World War II, caught the Kremlin off guard and has prompted tens of thousands of residents to flee their homes in the region.

Although Ukrainian forces claim to have control of more than 1,250 square kilometers (483 square miles) of territory, Russian military commanders haven’t redeployed significant forces from the front lines in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region to help dislodge the assault, Bloomberg News reported earlier this week.

Ukraine also wanted to show what Russian President Vladimir Putin stands for, Zelenskiy said: “For him it is more important to occupy Ukrainian territory than to protect his citizens.” 

Zelenskiy denied that Ukraine wants to use land in the Kursk region as a bargaining chip in talks with Russia. At an event to mark the national holiday, he said the only process Ukraine supports is the so-called peace formula that envisages steps from food and nuclear security to a full Russian troop withdrawal from Ukrainian territory. 

“The end of the war is restoration of Ukrainian territorial integrity and preventing the repeat of Russian Federation aggression,” Zelenskiy said. “But if we cannot” end the war diplomatically, “we will do our best so that our army is ready to force Putin out from the territory of our state.” 

The Kremlin illegally annexed four Ukrainian regions in 2022, months after launching a full-scale invasion. Kremlin forces don’t fully control any of those areas. Russia illegally annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in 2014.      

On a day when he also spoke with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz about the current situation on the front lines, Zelenskiy urged Ukraine’s “friends” to press allies to allow deeper strikes inside Russia. He also announced that Ukraine used its new long-range drone and missile called Palyanytsia for the first time, without providing any details. 

“Our new military solutions - in particular the Palyanitsa missile - are our real way of acting, while some of our partners, unfortunately, are slow with decisions,” Zelenskiy said. “While we are preparing some more powerful solutions, we need no less determination from our partners in these matters.”

Separately on Saturday, Zelenskiy promoted army commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi to the rank of general, according to a decree published on the president’s website. Syrskyi, 59, previously held the rank of colonel general.