Ukraine said its major cross-border assault had advanced one to two kilometers (0.6-1.2 miles) in Russia’s Kursk region since the start of Wednesday and that its troops had finished clearing the Russian town of Sudzha of Moscow’s forces.
Kyiv blindsided Moscow by pouring thousands of troops into the western Russian region of Kursk last week. The surprise operation has given Ukraine its biggest battlefield gains since 2022 after months on the backfoot.
In a video posted on his Telegram account, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was shown being briefed by his top commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, by video link.
“We continue to advance further in Kursk region. From one to two kilometres in various areas since the start of the day. And more than 100 Russian prisoners of war in the same period,” Zelenskiy wrote in a statement published alongside the video.
Kyiv says it has taken control of more than 1,000 sq km (386 sq miles) of territory so far.
Syrskiy said the Russian border town of Sudzha was fully under Ukrainian control.
“The search and destruction of the enemy in the settlement of Sudzha has been completed,” he said in the video.
NBC News was unable to independently verify the situation on the ground.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has vowed to hit back at Ukraine with a “worthy response” and accused Kyiv’s “Western masters” of helping Ukraine.
President Joe Biden said that U.S. officials were in constant touch with Ukraine over the invasion of Russia, which he said had “created a real dilemma” for Putin, who ordered thousands of troops into Ukraine in 2022.
The White House said Ukraine did not provide advance notice of its incursion and the United States had no involvement in the operation, though Russian officials have suggested Ukraine’s Western backers must have known of the attack.
A U.S. official said the goal of the Kursk incursion appeared to be to force Russia to pull troops out of Ukraine to defend Russian territory against the cross-border assault.
The Ukrainian assault on Russia, the biggest by a foreign force since World War Two, has dramatically changed the narrative around the war. Russia had been advancing since the failure of Ukraine’s 2023 counteroffensive to make any major gains against Moscow’s forces.
Putin said on Monday that Ukraine “with the help of its Western masters” was aiming to improve Kyiv’s negotiating position ahead of possible peace talks and to slow the advance of Russian forces.
But in a sign the attack is hardening the Kremlin’s position, Putin questioned what negotiations there could be with an enemy he accused of firing indiscriminately at Russian civilians and nuclear facilities.
The Russian ruble weakened against the dollar on Wednesday, and has lost 8.5% since the start of the Ukrainian attack on Aug. 6.
Russian officials say Ukraine is trying to show its Western backers that it can still muster major military operations just as pressure mounts on both Kyiv and Moscow to agree to talk about halting the war.
By bringing the war to Russia, Ukraine has forced nearly 200,000 Russians to evacuate border regions near the site of the World War Two battle of Kursk, where in 1943 the Red Army defeated Nazi forces in one of the world’s biggest ever battles.
The governor of Russia’s border region of Belgorod, Vyacheslav Gladkov, declared a regionwide state of emergency on Wednesday, citing continued attacks by Ukrainian forces.
“The situation in the Belgorod region continues to be extremely difficult and tense,” Gladkov said in a video posted on the Telegram messaging app.
Daily shelling by the Ukrainian armed forces had destroyed houses, killing and wounding civilians, he added.
The offensive brings risks for Kyiv: Ukraine may leave other parts of the front exposed by dedicating forces to fighting in Russian sovereign territory. Russia controls 18% of Ukrainian territory and has been advancing in recent months.
