Russia-Ukraine war: Ukraine says it has no interest in occupying Kursk area

A screen grab from a video released by Russian Ministry of Defense shows Russian forces launching a missile attack, targeting the military equipment of Ukrainian Armed Forces at the border area near Kursk Oblast, Russia. Photo / Getty Images

Ukraine says it has no interest in occupying territory in Russia’s Kursk region and that its major cross-border incursion is meant to complicate Russian military logistics and its ability to send more units to fight in Ukraine’s east.

Ukrainian officials blindsided Russia by pouring thousands of troops into the western Russian region of Kursk last week in a surprise operation under which Ukraine claims to have taken 1000sq km of land.

“Unlike Russia, Ukraine does not need other people’s property. Ukraine is not interested in taking the territory of the Kursk region but we want to protect the lives of our people,” the Ukrainian foreign ministry’s spokesman said.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Ukrainian forces have taken control of areas in the Kursk region that Russia has used to launch more than 2000 cross-border strikes on Ukraine since June.

“It should be emphasised that the operation ... helps the front line because it does not allow Russia to transfer additional units to [Ukraine’s] Donetsk region, complicates its military logistics,” foreign ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi said.

Russian forces have been trying to advance for months on multiple fronts in the Donetsk region, taking advantage of their greater troop numbers to steadily inch forward towards cities like the Ukrainian-held logistics hub of Pokrovsk.

For now, there is no sign of a let-up for Ukraine in the east where its military said earlier it had recorded the largest number of battles with Russian forces on the Pokrovsk front in a single day since before the Kursk incursion.

Ukrainian military spokesman Dmytro Lykhoviy told Reuters they had noted a movement of Russian troops from Ukraine’s south to other areas, likely including Kursk, this week.

But he said the number of attacks had not reduced as a result and that it was too early to draw conclusions.

Ukraine’s military has restricted the movement of civilians within a 20km zone of the northeastern border area.

It cited an “increase in the intensity of hostilities” and the activation of Russian sabotage and reconnaissance groups, adding the measure was temporary and that residents could still access their homes by showing proof of registration.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has vowed to hit back at Ukraine with a “worthy response” and accused the country’s allies of giving Ukrainian forces help.

Russia’s acting regional governor in Kursk Alexei Smirnov said on Monday that Ukraine’s forces had taken control of 28 settlements in an incursion that was about 12km deep and 40km wide.

Although less than half Ukraine’s estimate of its gains, the Russian assessment was a striking public admission of a major setback more than 29 months since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of its smaller neighbour.

Smirnov said that residents displaced by the fighting could be taken to a Russian-occupied area of Ukraine.

He wrote on Telegram that he had spoken to the governor of the Zaporizhzhia region in southeastern Ukraine about the plan.

Smirnov wrote that his Russian-installed counterpart in Zaporizhzhia, Yevgeny Balitsky, suggested that sanatoriums and boarding houses on the Azov Sea be used to accommodate the displaced.