Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says his forces are “strengthening” their positions in Russia’s Kursk region, where Kyiv is launching a major ground offensive.. He said his army chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, had reported that Ukrainian troops were continuing their advance and were also capturing more Russian soldiers. Ukraine says it has captured more than 80 settlements in a 1,150-square-kilometer area of Kursk since August 6 in Russia’s largest invasion since World War II. The latest reports from the battlefield could not be verified, but locals accuse the Russian government of downplaying the Ukrainian attack.
Zelensky also renewed his call for Ukraine’s Western allies to allow long-range strikes against Russia: “The long-range capability of our armed forces is the answer to all the important, strategically most important questions of this war,” said Zelensky. Western governments that provide military aid to Ukraine have so far refused to allow Ukraine to use long-range weapons because they see the risk of escalating the conflict.
Russia has accused NATO and the West more broadly of supporting the Ukrainian incursion, including by allowing the use of Western equipment.However, British government officials said Ukraine was entitled under international law to use equipment donated by Britain in operations, including inside Russia.
Associated Press reporters reported witnessing a “trail of devastation” during a tour of Kursk organized by the Ukrainian government. Alexander Kots, military correspondent for the pro-Kremlin newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, also said that Ukrainian pressure in Kursk was “not yet easing”.
Ukraine’s invasion of Russia has thwarted plans for indirect talks in Qatar on stopping attacks on energy infrastructure. The Washington Post reported this, citing unnamed official sources.
Ukraine is making “enormous political gains” from its military offensive in western Russia, but the invasion does not change the West’s “anti-escalation strategy.”said Polish Interior Minister Tomasz Siemoniak. The United States and Western powers, seeking to avoid a direct military confrontation with Russia, have said Ukraine gave no warning and Washington was not involved.
Security at Ukraine’s Zaporizhia nuclear power plant deteriorates after a drone attack on an access road on Saturdaysaid Rafael Mariano Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The warning followed a statement by the Russian management of the power plant that a Ukrainian drone had dropped an explosive device on a road used by employees, the Tass news agency reported earlier. Grossi expressed his concern: “I remain extremely concerned and reiterate my call for maximum restraint from all sides,” he said.
On Saturday, the Russian Defense Ministry accused Ukraine of planning an attack on the Kursk nuclear power plant and blamed Moscow for the “provocation,” the Interfax news agency reported.The ministry said Russia would respond harshly in the event of such an attack. A large part of the surrounding area would be contaminated, it said. Kyiv denied Russia’s claims, calling them “insane propaganda.”
According to the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Russia has lost 598,180 soldiers since the start of the large-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. This figure includes the 1,230 casualties suffered by Russian forces last day.
Russia The British Ministry of Defence has said that Ukraine is restricting access to information in order to curb criticism of its invasion of Ukraine. In a post on X, the Defense Ministry said that Russian authorities are “deliberately slowing down” traffic on WhatsApp and YouTube and that the latter “may be completely blocked in the fall of 2024.”
In the Ukrainian region of Donetsk, where Moscow has made a number of advances in recent weeks, The Ukrainian military said 51 Russian attacks near Pokrovsk had been stopped.a major logistics center in the eastern region, and another 13 near the city of Toretsk in the last 24 hours.
The Ukrainian Air Force said on Saturday that its air defenses had shot down 14 Russian drones in a nighttime attack. A statement said the Shahed drones were shot down over six Ukrainian regions in the south and center of the country.
Germany, the second-largest donor to war-torn Ukraine, plans to halve its bilateral military aid to Kyiv by 2025, a parliamentary source told AFP on Saturday. Instead, Olaf Scholz’s government will rely on money from frozen Russian assets to continue supporting Kyiv, with no plans to provide “additional aid” beyond the four billion euros ($4.4 billion) earmarked in next year’s budget.
Chechnya’s President Ramzan Kadyrov invited Tesla boss Elon Musk to Russia on Saturday after he was filmed driving one of the company’s Cybertrucks, which had a machine gun mounted on it. He also said he would donate the vehicle to Russian forces fighting in the invasion of Ukraine. Messages left with Tesla seeking comment were not immediately returned.
