Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited his country’s northeastern Sumy region on Thursday, his first trip to a location near the border with Russia since Kyiv’s troops staged a secretive incursion into Russia’s Kursk region in early August.
Zelenskyy met with Ukraine's military commander, Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, and then declared that Ukrainian forces have taken control of another settlement in Kursk and captured more Russian prisoners of war whom he hopes to exchange for captured Ukrainians. He referred to that as Ukraine's "exchange fund."
But Kyiv’s gains there — the first foreign capture of Russian territory since World War II — have come as Ukraine continues to lose ground in its eastern Donetsk region. The Russian Defense Ministry announced Thursday that its military has captured control of the village of Mezhove.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday accused Ukraine of trying to attack the Kursk nuclear power station, about 50 kilometers from the fighting in the Russian border region. But the Kremlin leader did not present any evidence for his claims or provide further details on the alleged attack.
The offensive into Russia was a first for Ukraine in the 2 ½ year war. Ukraine and Russia for months have relied on drones to go after targets deep behind enemy battle lines. Ukraine has often targeted Russian military sites that are used to direct drone and missile attacks against Ukraine.
Officials in southern Russia’s Volgograd region said Thursday a Ukrainian drone hit a military facility and sparked a fire.
Andrei Bocharov, the regional governor, said on Telegram the attack happened in the Marinovka area, but no injuries were reported. A Russian air base is in the area.
Videos shared on Russian social media showed an explosion in the night sky, reportedly near the base. Marinovka is about 300 kilometers east of the Ukrainian border and about the same distance west from the border with Kazakhstan.
Ukraine claimed responsibility for the attack.
Drone warfare rages on in the war. Russia’s Defense Ministry said Thursday that Ukrainian forces attacked overnight with a total of 28 drones, with 13 targeting Volgograd. The Rostov, Belgorod, Voronezh, Bryansk and Kursk regions were also targeted.
Ukraine’s military said Thursday it shot down two Russian drones overnight after Russia launched an aerial attack from Kursk.
Alexei Smirnov, the regional governor of Kursk, said Thursday that authorities were installing concrete air-raid shelters in the regional capital.
In Russia’s Bryansk region, which borders Kursk, officials said Russian forces thwarted an attempt by Ukrainian fighters to cross the border Wednesday.
Russia’s FSB security service said Thursday it opened criminal cases against several journalists, accusing them of illegally crossing the Russian border to report on the Ukrainian incursion in Kursk.
The FSB named CNN correspondent Nick Paton Walsh among those who had reported from Sudzha, along with two Ukrainian journalists.
Some information for this report came from Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
