The operation in the Kursk region is designed to protect Ukrainian citizens on the border and to destroy the potential for Russian aggression. If Western partners lifted all restrictions on the use of long-range weapons in Russian territory, Ukraine would not need to mount an offensive in Kursk, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. He added that Ukrainian soldiers already control more than 92 settlements and more than 1,250 square kilometers of enemy territory. “This operation became our largest investment in the process of freeing Ukrainians from Russian captivity. We captured the largest number of Russian prisoners in one operation,” the President noted. According to him, the concept of the so-called red lines with Russia, which dominated the war’s assessment by some partners, “disintegrated these days somewhere under Sudzha. And the situation in Donetsk proves that the further delay of long-range partners de facto becomes almost the most important pillar of the Russian offensive potential,” Zelenskyy noted. But he added that military aid is currently arriving with delays, including from the US.
Ukraine controls about 1,300 square kilometers of enemy territory in the Kursk Region.
