Russia has launched a counter-offensive in its Kursk region to expel Ukrainian forces that invaded there five Sundays ago, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said today.
Russia's Defense Ministry said its forces had recaptured 10 settlements in Kursk and named them, but did not describe the fighting as a counteroffensive.
Zelensky said that Russia was taking "counter-offensive actions", but that Ukrainian forces had foreseen these moves and were ready to fight.
Ukraine launched its incursion into Kursk on August 6, partly in the hope that Russia would divert its troops from Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, where Russian military pressure threatens to overrun a belt of key defense strongholds.
Moscow's weak response suggested that Russia had not planned for such a development and was caught by surprise.
However, the Russian army is still pushing its way deeper into eastern Ukraine, especially in Donetsk, and is attacking Ukrainian territory with constant missile and drone attacks.
Pokrovsk is one of Ukraine's main defense strongholds and a key logistics hub in the Donetsk region. Its capture would threaten Ukraine's defense capabilities and supply routes and bring Russia closer to its stated goal of seizing the entire Donetsk region, which it already partially holds.
Bonus video:
