Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky yesterday said his troops were meeting their objectives during their offensive in Russia’s Kursk region, launched almost two weeks ago.
“We are achieving our goals. This morning we have another replenishment of the (prisoner of war) exchange fund for our country,” Zelensky said, a day after saying Ukraine was attempting to create a “buffer zone” in Russia.
The Kremlin said yesterday it “will not talk” to Ukraine given its incursion into Russia’s Kursk region.
Kyiv sent troops over the border on August 6, and has since held onto a part of the Kursk region, going on the attack in an offensive that has rattled Moscow.
“At the current stage, given this escapade, we will not talk,” Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told the Russian Shot Telegram channel, adding that “at the moment it would be completely inappropriate to enter into a negotiating process”.
Russian troops capture ‘major’ settlement in Ukraine’s Donetsk region
Authorities in the southern Russian city of Proletarsk introduced a state of emergency yesterday as firefighters battle for more than 24 hours to extinguish a blaze at an oil facility hit by a Ukrainian drone.
Russia said Kyiv struck the fuel storage warehouse — located in the city of 20,000 people in the southern Rostov region — on Sunday morning and that the blaze was raging for a second day.
Local governor Vasily Golubev said the “liquidation of the fire is continuing” and that 18 firefighters were hurt tackling the blaze.
Meanwhile, Russia said yesterday its troops captured a “major” settlement in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, where Moscow’s forces are advancing.
Russia’s defence ministry said it had “liberated” the village of Artemovo, describing it as one of the area’s “major population centres,” located outside the town of Toretsk, where there has been heavy fighting.
