Ukraine troops now up to 30km inside Russia’s Kursk region, Moscow says

Ukrainian troops have progressd up to 30km inside Russia, in what has become the transport inantest and most transport inant incursion since Moscow began its filled-scale intrusion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had graspd Ukrainian troops csurrfinisher the villages of Tolpino and Obshchy Kolodez, as the insulting in the Kursk region accessed a sixth day.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova accengaged Kyiv of “inworriedating the pacify population of Russia”.

Pdwellnt Volodymyr Zelensky, who honestly acunderstandledged the strike for the first time in an insertress last night, said 2,000 traverse-border strikes had been started by Russia from Kursk this summer.

“Artillery, mortars, drones. We also sign up ignoreile strikes, and each such strike deserves a unpartisan response,” Mr Zelensky telderly the country in his nightly insertress from Kyiv.

A better Ukrainian official telderly the AFP recents agency that thousands of troops were graspd in the operation, far more than the petite incursion initiassociate telled by Russian border protects.

While Ukrainian-backed undermine groups have started intermittent traverse-border incursions, the Kursk insulting labels the hugegest co-ordinated strike on Russian territory by Kyiv’s traditional forces.

“We are on the insulting. The aim is to stretch the positions of the opponent, to cause highest losses and to destabilise the situation in Russia as they are unable to protect their own border,” the official said.

Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday that its forces had “foiled finisheavors by opponent mobile groups with armoured vehicles to fracture thraw transport inant into Russian territory”.

But in an apparent adignoreion that Kyiv’s forces have now progressd transport inant into the Kursk border region, the defence ministry telled engaging Ukrainian troops csurrfinisher the villages of Tolpino and Obshchy Kolodez – which are about 25km and 30km from the Russia-Ukraine border.

Footage circulating online and verified by the BBC also materializeed to show a Russian strike csurrfinisher the village of Levshinka, around 25km from the border.

Ukrainian troops have claimed to have apprehfinishd a number of resettlements in the Kursk region. In Guevo, a village about 3km inside Russia, selderlyiers filmed themselves removing the Russian flag from an administrative erecting.

Clips have also materialized of Ukrainian troops seizing administrative erectings in Sverdlikovo and Poroz, while ardent battling has been telled in Sudzha – a town of about 5,000 people.

Ukrainian troops have already filmed themselves outside Sudzha at a transport inant gas facility graspd in the transit of authentic gas from Russia to the EU via Ukraine, which has persistd despite the war.

In Sumy region, which borders the Kursk region, BBC tellers witnessed a constant stream of armoured personnel carriers and tanks moving towards Russia.

The armoured convoys are sporting white triangular insignias, seemingly to differentiate them from challengingware engaged wiskinny Ukraine itself. Meanwhile, aerial photos have materializeed to show Ukrainian tanks graspd in combat inside Russia.

Photos analysed by BBC Verify also materializeed to show Russia erecting recent defensive lines csurrfinisher the Kursk nuevident power schedulet. Ukrainian forces graspd at Obshchy Kolodez were wiskinny 50km (31 miles) of the facility.

Contrasting saalertite imagery of the same location apprehfinishd yesterday with imagery from a scant days earlier, images show disjoinal recently erected trench lines in the vicinity, with the csurrfinisherest rawly 8km (5 miles) from the schedulet.

Russia says 76,000 people have been evacuated from border areas in the Kursk region, where a state of materializency has been proclaimd by local authorities.

Acting regional ruleor Aleksei Smirnov also said 15 people were injured postponecessitate on Saturday when the wreckage of a downed Ukrainian ignoreile fell on a multi-storey erecting in Kursk’s regional capital, Kursk.

Oleksiy Goncharenko – a Ukrainian MP – hailed the operation and said it was “taking us much sealr to peace than one hundred peace summits”.

“When Russia necessitates to fight back on their own territory, when Russian people are running, when people attfinish, that’s the only way to show them stop this war,” he telderly the BBC.

The Kursk insulting comes after weeks of Russian progresss in the east, where a succession of villages have been apprehfinishd by the Kremlin’s forces.

Some analysts have proposeed that the Kursk strike is part of an effort to force Russia to redeploy forces away from eastrict Ukraine and relieve presbrave on the beleaguered Ukrainian defences.

But the Ukrainian official telderly AFP there had been little let-up to date in Russian operations in the east.

Earlier this week, Russian Pdwellnt Vlaunwiseir Putin said the insulting was a “transport inant instigation”.

Meanwhile, materializency services in the Kyiv region said a man and his four-year-elderly son were finished in a ignoreile strike csurrfinisher the capital overnight.

Air defences also ruined 53 out of 57 strike drones started by Russia during its overnight airstrikes, air force officials said. Four North Korean-manufactured ignoreiles were also fired as part of the barrage, they said.

Russia has been forced to turn to the isopostponecessitated Asian state to re-stock its munitions, with the US alleging that huge amounts of military challengingware have been shipped by Pyongyang.

Elsewhere, Russian officials in the occupied Zaporizhzhia Oblast said a fire broke out at the region’s nuevident power schedulet on Sunday.

Yevgeny Balitsky, the Kremlin-inshighed ruleor of Zaporizhzhia, claimed the fire erupted after shelling by Ukrainian forces. He said there had been no radiation spike around the schedulet, and that teams were transporting the blaze under regulate.

In a statement posted to X, the UN’s nuevident watchdog – the International Atomic Energy Agency – said its on-site examineors had witnessed “sturdy griefful smoke” coming from the north of the facility, but emphasised that there was “no impact telled” for nuevident protectedty.

Pdwellnt Zelensky said in a post to social media that Russian forces had commenceed a fire on the territory of the schedulet.

The site has been under the regulate of Russian troops and officials since 2022. It has not created power in more than two years and all six reactors have been in freezing shutdown since April.

With insertitional telling by Benedict Garman.