Ukrainian president says push into Russia’s Kursk region is to create buffer zone
- ‘It is now our primary task … to destroy as much Russian war potential as possible,’ Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday a daring military incursion into Russia’s Kursk region aims to create a buffer zone to prevent further attacks by Moscow across the border.
It was the first time Zelensky clearly stated the aim of the operation, which was launched on August 6. Previously, he had said the operation aimed to protect communities in the bordering Sumy region from constant shelling.
“It is now our primary task in defensive operations overall: to destroy as much Russian war potential as possible and conduct maximum counteroffensive actions. This includes creating a buffer zone on the aggressor’s territory – our operation in the Kursk region,” Zelensky said in his nightly address.
Over the weekend, Ukraine has destroyed a key bridge in the region and struck a second one nearby, disrupting supply lines as it pressed its stunning cross-border incursion, officials said.
Russia’s pro-Kremlin military bloggers have acknowledged that the destruction of the first bridge, which spanned the Seim River near the town of Glushkovo, will impede deliveries of supplies to Russian forces repelling Ukraine’s incursion, although Moscow could still use pontoons and smaller bridges in the area. Ukraine’s air force chief, Lieutenant Mykola Oleshchuk, on Friday released a video of a Ukrainian air strike that split the bridge in two.
Fewer than two days later, Ukrainian troops hit a second bridge in Russia, according to Oleshchuk and the Russian regional governor, Alexei Smirnov.
As of Sunday morning, there were no official reports on where exactly the second bridge attack took place. Russian Telegram channels claimed that a second bridge over the Seim, in the village of Zvannoe, had been struck.