Ukraine claims to have taken control of 100 settlements in Russia’s Kursk region during its surprise cross-border assault – while facing massive airstrikes from Russian forces for the second day running.
Kyiv’s top military commander Oleksandr Syrskyi said his troops now control 1,294 sq km (500 sq m) of Russian territory in Kursk with up to 594 Russian prisoners of war taken.
Three weeks ago, Russia was caught by surprise in neighbouring Kursk region when thousands of Ukrainian soldiers punched through the border in an unprecedented move.
Colonel General Syrskyi said Kyiv’s objective of distracting Russian troops by pulling them back from eastern Ukrainian regions like the Donbas had been successful.
However, Col Gen Syrskyi also warned Moscow was building up its forces on the eastern frontline, around the important logistics hub of Pokrovsk, where Russian troops have been advancing.
In remarks broadcast on television, he said by video link that Russia was trying to disrupt Ukraine’s supply lines to the front near Pokrovsk.
“The situation on the Pokrovsk front is fairly difficult. The enemy is using its advantage in personnel, weapons and military equipment; it is actively using artillery and aviation,” he said.
It comes after at least five people were killed as Russia launched another major wave of missile and drone attacks on Ukraine just a day after Moscow’s biggest air attack since the war began.
Two people were killed when a hotel was “wiped out” in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih and two others died in drone attacks on the city of Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine, officials said.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky vowed to take revenge. “We will undoubtedly respond to Russia for this and all other attacks. Crimes against humanity cannot go unpunished,” Mr Zelensky said.
Meanwhile, Moscow’s officials claimed Ukrainian troops had also attempted another cross-border attack into Belgorod, a region of Russia that borders Kursk.
Belgorod’s regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said the situation on the border with Ukraine was “difficult but under control” after claiming hundreds of Ukrainian troops attacked at least one checkpoint.
The claim has not been independently verified and Kyiv has not commented. A Russian military blog said there had been no major attempts to pierce the border.
On Monday, Russia launched more than 200 missiles and drones at Ukraine with up to seven people killed across the country.
The Russian strikes were delivered via some 100 Iran-made Shahed drones and roughly the same number of cruise and hypersonic missiles, Mr Zelensky said.
At a news conference on Tuesday, the Ukrainian president said that Russia’s invasion would eventually end in dialogue, but that Kyiv had to be in a strong position and that he would present a plan to US President Joe Biden and his two potential successors.
Mr Zelensky said Kyiv’s three-week-old incursion into Russia’s Kursk region was part of that plan, but that it also comprised other steps on the economic and diplomatic fronts.
“The main point of this plan is to force Russia to end the war. And I want that very much [for it to be] fair for Ukraine,” he told reporters in Kyiv.
He did not elaborate further on the next steps, but said he would also discuss the plan with Democratic vice-president Kamala Harris and probably also with Republican Donald Trump, the two nominees for the US presidential election.
“There can be no compromises with Putin, dialogue today is in principle empty and meaningless because he does not want to end the war diplomatically,” Mr Zelensky said.
He said the offensive into the Kursk region had reduced the number of governments around the world calling for Ukraine to make compromises with Russia to end the war and give up swathes of territory.
Mr Zelensky also mocked Mr Putin, who he said was prioritising the capture of Ukrainian land over the defence of Russia’s own territory.
The Ukrainian leader also said that Kyiv was continuing to make progress on its domestic weapons production and that it had conducted its first test of a domestically produced ballistic missile.
Meanwhile, the head of the UN’s nuclear agency warned of the risk of a serious accident at a Russian nuclear plant because of fighting nearby between Russian and Ukrainian forces.
Rafael Grossi, director general at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), spoke after visiting the plant in Kursk. “The danger or possibility of a nuclear accident has emerged near here,” Mr Grossi said.
“We see the plant still operating, but at the same time, the fact that the plant is operating may get even more serious in terms of an eventual action against it,” he added. “When a plant is operating, the temperature is much higher, and if there was the case of an impact or something that could affect it, there would be serious consequences.”
Reuters contributed to this report