Zelenskyj: – The Kursk attack will put pressure on Russia

In a speech on Sunday, Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed for the first time that Ukrainian forces have crossed the border into the Kursk region.

– Today I received several reports from Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyj about the front lines and the efforts to push the war into the territory of the aggressor. Ukraine shows that we can create justice and exert the necessary pressure against the attacking party, Zelenskyy said in his daily video speech on Sunday evening.

Military analysts say the cross-border attack has caught the Russians off guard. The authorities on the Russian side have evacuated many of the inhabitants of the region and introduced strict security measures.

Russia has called the offensive “barbaric” and says it makes no sense militarily. Several of Ukraine’s allies have also wondered what the Ukrainians want to achieve by entering Russian territory.

At most, the Ukrainian forces have occupied a few tens of square kilometers on the Russian side, while Russia occupies over 100,000 square kilometers of Ukraine’s territory.

The cross-border raid is the most extensive Ukrainian incursion into Russia since the country’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. According to the BBC, the Russian Ministry of Defense says it has attacked Ukrainian forces near the towns of Tolpino and Obshchy Kolodez, which are 25 and 30 kilometers respectively into the Russian side of the border.