Ukraine’s top commander has said Kyiv’s forces control 1,000 square kilometers of Russian territory as they press their biggest cross-border incursion in two-and-a-half years of full scale war, the BBC reports.
Commander Oleksandr Syrskyi said Ukraine continued to “conduct an offensive operation in the Kursk region” seven days after it began.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said “Russia had brought war to others and now it was coming back to Russia.
Russian leader Vladimir Putin described the offensive as a “major provocation” and ordered Russian forces to “to kick the enemy out of our territory.”
A growing number of people have been evacuated from the western Russian region for their safety, with a further 59,000 told to leave on Monday.
The local governor said some 28 villages in the area had fallen to Ukrainian forces, that 12 civilians had been killed and that “the situation remains difficult.”
Ukrainian troops launched their surprise attack last Tuesday, advancing up to 30km into Russia.
