Zelensky Says Ukraine Pushing Deeper Into Russia

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has said that Ukraine advanced one to two kilometers (0.6 to 1.2 miles) in the Kursk region on Wednesday Morning.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter) Zelensky said that Ukraine had captured more than 100 Russian servicemen since the beginning of the day.

Ukraine's attacks in the neighboring Kursk region have now extended into their second week.

The incursion into Russian territory has branched into the neighboring region of Belgorod which declared a state of emergency on Wednesday following a surge of shelling as Ukraine presses its attacks on Russia.

Belgorod Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov described the situation as "extremely difficult and tense," as the attacks destroyed homes and caused civilian casualties, unnerving local people.

Local authorities have relocated approximately 5,000 children to safety camps and reported that about 11,000 people have been displaced, with 1,000 seeking refuge in temporary shelters.

The incursion, which began with a surprise attack on Aug. 6, marks the largest assault on Russian soil since World War II, involving an estimated 10,000 Ukrainian troops equipped with armor and artillery, according to military analysts.

An emergency was declared in Kursk last Saturday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is reportedly seeking to root out officers responsible for failing to stop Ukraine's incursion.

A Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesperson clarified that Kyiv does not intend to occupy the Russian territory it has seized.

The objective, they said, is to prevent Russia from launching missile strikes into Ukraine from Kursk.

It was not clear how or when—or whether—Ukraine would attempt to extricate itself from the ground it has taken.

The Ukrainian military claims it controls 74 settlements, believed to be villages or hamlets, in the Kursk region but Russia disputes this figure.

Russian officials say more than 100,000 people have been evacuated, mostly from Kursk.

On Wednesday, Ukraine's 1+1 TV channel aired footage it said was from Sudzha, a Russian town near the border.

The footage showed burnt-out Russian military columns on roads in the area and Ukrainian soldiers distributing humanitarian aid and removing Russian flags from an administrative building.

The Russian government faces a strategic dilemma: whether to reallocate troops from the front lines in Donetsk—where achieving a breakthrough is a major objective—to defend Kursk and prevent further escalation of the incursion.

U.S. President Joe Biden commented on the situation, noting it presents a "real dilemma" for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Biden declined to comment further on the top-secret operation until it is over.

According to the Institute for the Study of War, the incursion is unlikely to drastically alter the broader dynamics of the conflict.

"Russian authorities will likely remain extremely averse to pulling Russian military units engaged in combat from (Donetsk) and will likely continue deploying limited numbers of irregular forces to Kursk … due to concerns about further slowing the tempo of Russian operations in these higher priority directions," it said late Tuesday.

A woman in Belgorod told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the number of people in Belgorod who openly supported the war has decreased following the intensified Ukrainian attacks, speaking on condition of anonymity because of security concerns.

"When explosions started near the city, when people were dying and when all this started happening before our eyes … and when it affected people personally, they stopped at least openly supporting" the war, the woman said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky indicated the Kursk operation is also intended to lift the country's spirits after 900 days of war and rally people by making a statement about Ukraine's military capabilities.

"Now all of us in Ukraine should act as unitedly and efficiently as we did in the first weeks and months of this war, when Ukraine took the initiative and began to turn the situation to the benefit of our state," Zelensky said in his nightly address Tuesday.

Russia's Ministry of Defense said Wednesday it destroyed 117 Ukrainian drones and four missiles over eight of its regions overnight.

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