“As of today, our armed forces control more than 1,250 square kilometers of enemy territory,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday in Kiev. In view of the Ukrainian offensive, the Kremlin ruled out peace talks with Kiev. As Zelensky further announced on Monday, Ukrainian troops now also control 92 towns.
In the past four days, the Ukrainian army has captured ten more towns. The Ukrainian army made a surprise advance into the Kursk region on August 6 and has since controlled parts of the area, including the strategically important city of Sudzha, which is a hub for gas supplies to Western Europe. It is Ukraine’s largest cross-border offensive since the start of the Russian war of aggression in February 2022.
According to the Ukrainian president, the offensive is intended to increase pressure on Russia with a view to peace negotiations and to create a buffer zone. Zelensky had previously made the complete withdrawal of the Russian army from Ukrainian territory – including the Crimean peninsula, which was annexed in 2014 – a condition for negotiations.
In contrast, Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin is demanding that Ukraine withdraw from four Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine and renounce NATO membership. Even before the Ukrainian invasion of Russia, negotiations were unlikely in view of the demands.
Zelensky stated on Monday that the soldiers in Kursk are “achieving our goals.” Referring to the capture of Russian soldiers, the president stated that “this morning we achieved another replenishment of the exchange fund for our country.”
However, Moscow rejected negotiations with Kiev on Monday. “In view of this escapade, we will not talk at this time,” Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov said on the online service Telegram. At the moment it would be “completely inappropriate to enter into a negotiation process.” The Ukrainian advance has pushed the prospect of peace negotiations into the distance. The start of possible talks depends “on the situation in the combat zone, including in the Kursk region,” Ushakov explained.
In recent days, Ukraine destroyed two key bridges over Russia’s Sejm River to cut off Moscow’s supply routes to the combat zone. A third bridge over the Sejm was attacked over the weekend, a Russian military investigator said in a video published by pro-Kremlin TV commentator Vladimir Solovyov.
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday that Ukrainian attacks on three more villages in the Kursk region had been thwarted. There have also been allegations in Russia that inexperienced conscripts were sent to protect the Kursk region in order not to divert experienced fighters from the front lines in eastern Ukraine.
Meanwhile, authorities in the city of Proletarsk in southwestern Russia declared a state of emergency following a fire caused by a Ukrainian drone attack. 41 firefighters were injured in the operation, said the governor of the Rostov region, Vasily Golubev, on Monday in the online service Telegram. 18 of them were hospitalized.
The Ukrainian incursion is causing significant concern among the Russians. Some in Kiev are hoping that the mood in the country could turn against the Kremlin’s war, which has been going on for more than two years. “The Russians, who are used to watching the war on TV, are now experiencing it first hand,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podoliak told the online service X.
Meanwhile, fighting continued in Ukraine. On Monday, the Russian Defense Ministry reported the capture of another town in the contested eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk. The small town of Salisne is one of the “most important population centers” in the region, it said.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian authorities ordered the evacuation of families with children from the strategically important city of Pokrovsk. On Monday, authorities reported four deaths in Russian attacks in places near the front.
In the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk in Ukraine, a pregnant woman was killed and ten people were injured when Ukrainians shelled a bus stop, said Russian-appointed governor Denis Pushilin. Two children were among the injured.
President Zelensky will receive Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday. This is Modi’s first state visit to Ukraine – India is a close partner of Russia. The Indian Prime Minister had already met Putin at the beginning of July. Modi has made no secret of his desire to bring the conflict to an end.
