Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said Ukraine’s invasion of Russia’s Kursk region shows Kremlin threats of retaliation are a bluff as he urged Kyiv’s allies to loosen curbs on using their weapons against targets on Russian territory. Zelenskiy said Ukrainian forces had gained control of more than 1,250 sq km (483 sq miles) and 92 settlements in Kursk.
Speaking to Ukrainian diplomats, the president said the “naive, illusory concept of so-called red lines” had “crumbled apart”. But restrictions imposed by allies remain, and Zelenskiy urged allies to be bolder in helping Ukraine. “The world sees that everything in this war depends only on courage – our courage, the courage of our partners. On brave decisions for Ukraine, on courage in supporting Ukraine.”
Ukraine has destroyed a third bridge over the Seym River in Kursk, Dan Sabbagh writes, as part of an apparent attempt to expand what Zelenskiy has described as a military “buffer zone” inside Russia.
Kyiv’s forces remain on the defensive in Ukraine itself – battling fiercely around the strategic eastern city of Pokrovsk, where Russia has steadily advanced in recent weeks. Russian troops on Monday were reportedly around 10km (six miles) from the outskirts, said Serhiy Dobriak, head of the local military administration.
Civilians with small children in their arms and lugging heavy suitcases fled on Monday from Pokrovsk under orders to evacuate. Local authorities said Russian forces were advancing so quickly that families were instructed to leave the city and other nearby towns and villages starting on Tuesday. About 53,000 people still lived in Pokrovsk, officials said, and some of them had decided to get out immediately.
Ukraine’s top general said Kyiv was also “doing everything necessary” to defend the eastern city of Toretsk as Moscow tries to threaten Ukrainian supply lines. Russia said its forces had captured the nearby town of Zalizne.
Dmytro Lykhovii, spokesperson for Ukraine’s Tavria group of forces, said Russian ground assaults had decreased on the war’s southern Ukrainian front compared with last week. Likhovey did not say whether it was due to Ukraine’s invasion of the Kursk region, the official Ukrinform news agency said. In the Zaporizhia region around Orekhovo and Gulyai-Polye there had been no clashes for a third day. Only small Russian attacks were mounted on Ukrainian-held positions on the western side of the Dnipro river in the Kherson region, Lykhovii told Ukrainian media, but Russian aircraft continued to carry out strikes with glide bombs.
The British prime minister, Keir Starmer, “remains absolutely resolute” in supporting Ukraine, his spokesperson said on Monday, after Zelenskiy suggested that UK support “has slowed down recently”.
Back in Russia, an oil facility in Proletarsk, southern Rostov region, has burned for two days after a Ukrainian drone strike. Russian social media channels reported a massive fire and successive explosions, backed up by pictures and footage online, with 11 storage tanks said to have been destroyed. Forty-one firefighters needed hospital treatment, said the Rostov region governor, Vasily Golubev.
Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said Moscow was not ready to hold peace talks with Ukraine for now, given the Kursk attack. Ukraine has demanded a full withdrawal of Russian troops from its territory before it sits down for any talks.
