Around 10,000 Russian soldiers are fighting in Russia’s Kursk region, about 90 square kilometres of which is controlled by Ukraine, Ukraine’s top military commander said.
“We control about 90sqkm of territory in the Hlushkov district of the Kursk region of the Russian Federation, and these are our pre-emptive actions in response to a possible enemy attack,” Oleksandr Syrskyi said without elaborating, in remarks released by his office for publication yesterday.
The Ukrainian military said the activity in this area prevented Russia from sending a significant number of its forces to Ukraine’s eastern region of Donetsk, where some of the heaviest fighting has taken place in the more than three-year-old full-scale invasion.
Syrskyi’s troops are repelling Russian forces along the frontline, which stretches for about 1,200 km, where the situation remains difficult, the Ukrainian military said.
Russian gains have accelerated in May and June, though the Ukrainian military says it comes at a cost of high Russian casualties in small assault-group attacks.
While the military says its troops repelled Russian approaches toward Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region borders last week, the pressure continues in the country’s eastern and northern regions.
The Russian military also continues its deadly drone and missile attacks on the Ukrainian cities further from the front, prompting Ukraine to innovate its approaches to air defence.
Ukraine’s military said it currently destroys around 82 per cent of Shahed-type drones launched by Russia but requires more surface-to-air missile systems to defend critical infrastructure and cities.
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