Ukraine reports capture of 74 Russian towns – state of emergency in Belgorod

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky believes that the country’s armed forces are on the rise in view of the advance into Russian territory. “Ukraine can achieve its goals, defend its interests and protect its independence,” Zelensky said in his evening video message broadcast in Kyiv. The army has now captured 74 towns in the Kursk region. That would be twice as many as the Russian side claims. The Ukrainian project DeepState assumes that around 44 Russian towns have been captured.

Ukraine says it continues to advance

Zelensky’s commander-in-chief, Oleksander Syrsky, reported in a conversation with the president that his own troops had advanced between one and three kilometers in some directions. According to this, the Ukrainian armed forces had captured an additional 40 square kilometers in the Kursk region.

Syrskyj had previously reported that an area of ​​about 1,000 square kilometers had been captured since the offensive began on Tuesday a week ago. That would be more than double the area that the Russian army claims to have captured in the fighting in eastern Ukraine since the beginning of the year.

According to the acting governor of the Kursk region, Alexei Smirnov, only 28 places are under enemy control. During a meeting with Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin on Monday, Smirnov stated that the Ukrainian armed forces had penetrated up to 12 kilometers deep into the Kursk region, stretching 40 kilometers along the border. Ukrainian sources spoke of a depth of around 30 kilometers. Neither the Ukrainian nor the Russian information can be independently verified.

Russia declares state of emergency in Belgorod

Meanwhile, the governor of the Russian border region of Belgorod declared a regional state of emergency in view of the ongoing Ukrainian attacks. “The situation in the Belgorod region remains extremely difficult and tense,” said Vyacheslav Gladkov in a video message on the short message service Telegram.

Gladkov reported daily shelling by the Ukrainian armed forces, which destroyed houses and killed and injured civilians. Due to this situation, it was decided to impose a regional state of emergency across the entire Belgorod region with immediate effect, “with a subsequent appeal to the government to declare a federal state of emergency.” The measures are intended to ensure the safety of the population and deal with the consequences of the attacks.

Selenskyj wants to use conquests as a bargaining chip

According to Zelensky, Ukraine is pursuing several goals with the unprecedented ground offensive on Russian territory. The invasion of his troops is primarily intended to increase the pressure on Moscow to enter into peace negotiations after almost two and a half years of aggressive war against Ukraine. Zelensky said that this would bring a just peace closer.

Kiev can use the conquered areas as a bargaining chip in negotiations because it wants to get back the areas occupied by Russian troops in the east and south of Ukraine. The Foreign Ministry in Kiev had stressed that, unlike Russia, the Ukrainian side is not annexing foreign territory.

Zelensky also made it clear that he needed the new Russian prisoners of war to exchange them for Ukrainians. Hundreds of Russians have already been taken prisoner by the Ukrainians. They are being treated more humanely than in the Russian army, said Zelensky, who appeared smiling and more relaxed than he has for months during appearances in Kyiv. Kyiv and Moscow have already exchanged prisoners several times.