Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has confirmed that Kyiv’s forces are fighting inside Russia, days after an unexpected Ukrainian cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, which CNN reports has become a significant embarrassment for the Kremlin.
“Ukraine is proving that it truly knows how to restore justice and is ensuring the exact pressure needed to press the aggressor,” Zelensky said in his nightly address to the nation on Saturday, thanking every unit of Ukraine’s armed forces for making it possible to “bring the war to the aggressor’s territory.”
With this statement, Zelensky officially acknowledged the incursion, surprising both Russia and Ukraine’s allies.
Moscow is trying to contain the assault. Russian authorities have launched a large-scale counter-terrorism operation in Kursk and two other border regions, and tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from Kursk.
Now in its sixth day, the attack on Kursk is a significant development in the more than two-year conflict.
The governor of the Kursk region has urged the authorities to speed up the evacuation on Sunday. According to the Russian news agency TASS, more than 76,000 people have left their homes in the border regions as of Saturday.
