President Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced Thursday that his forces had captured a Russian village while visiting a border domain where Ukrainian troops entered Russia more than two weeks ago.
Meanwhile, the US Embassy in kyiv issued a warning about increased Russian missile and drone attacks against Ukraine in the coming days, coinciding with Ukraine’s Independence Day on August 24.
The embassy posted a notice on its online page last Wednesday, warning of an increased threat of attacks in the coming days and throughout the weekend.
For Ukrainians, Independence Day has taken on an even greater character since the Russian invasion, which sparked patriotic emotions among many people.
This year, that date comes more than two weeks after Ukraine introduced a wonderful cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, even as Russian troops advance into eastern Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow would give a “dignified response” to the incursion that he called a primary provocation.
Meanwhile, Russian forces prevented a Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance team from crossing the border in the western Bryansk region, about 240 kilometers (150 miles) from the site of the Ukrainian incursion into the neighboring Kursk region, a Russian official said. .
Russia said on Wednesday that its forces had infiltrated eastern Ukraine and began pushing back Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region, although a senior commander warned that Ukrainian forces were regrouping in preparation for some other conceivable attack.
Authorities in Kursk said they had begun installing concrete shelters to help civilians during the Ukrainian incursion.
Kyiv has announced a series of battlefield successes since the action began, but Moscow has been advancing for months in eastern Ukraine, its troops depleted after years of fighting after Russia’s invasion in February 2022.
The Russian Defense Ministry said Thursday that its forces had captured the village of Mezhove, in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. Russia has said that the Ukrainian offensive on its soil has been halted. Ukraine continued to boast of its progress.
Zelenskiy said he met with his commander-in-chief, Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, during his stopover in the Sumy border region. Official video footage showed them shaking hands and kissing, but did not specify when the stopover took place.
Zelenskiy said in a statement that there had been a reduction in shelling and civilian casualties in Sumy since the Kursk operation. Ukrainian forces also captured another Russian village, he added. Ukrainian officials have said in the past that kyiv controls more than 90 settlements.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov told a delegation of members of the U. S. Congress on Wednesday that Kyiv’s attack on Kursk was aimed at protecting Ukraine.
Umerov said in a statement: “Our goals there (in Kursk) are to protect the border from threats from the Russian army and to make enemy shelling and attacks on our cities and towns impossible. “
The raid has boosted the morale of Ukrainians as they prepare to celebrate 33 years of independence from the Soviet Union on Saturday. The US embassy in kyiv, however, warned on Thursday that there is an increased threat of Russian missile and drone attacks across Ukraine in the coming days in connection with Independence Day.
With the contribution of the agencies.