Ukraine says no plans to seize territory seized by Russian invasion

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KYIV, Ukraine — Russia said Tuesday that its forces had blocked an attempt by Ukrainian troops to expand a weeklong incursion into the Kursk region, and a Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman said Kiev had no intention of occupying Russian territory.

The Russian Defense Ministry issued a statement saying that Russian forces, including fresh reserves, aircraft, drone units and artillery, prevented Ukrainian armored mobile forces from penetrating deep into Russian territory near the Kursk settlements of Obushchikolodez, Snagov, Kochuk and Alexeevsky.

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Meanwhile, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Khodorkovsky said the cross-border operation was aimed at protecting Ukrainian territory from long-range strikes by Kursk missiles.

“Ukraine is not interested in occupying the territories of the Kursk region, but we want to protect the lives of our people,” Tikhoy was quoted as saying by local media.

He said Russia had launched more than 2,000 attacks from the Kursk region in recent months, using anti-aircraft missiles, artillery, mortars, drones, 255 glide bombs and more than 100 missiles.

“The purpose of this operation was to protect the lives of our children and to protect Ukrainian territory from Russian attacks,” he said.

Ukraine currently controls 74 settlements in the Kursk region, Ukrainian army commander Oleksandr Sersky said in a video posted on President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Telegram channel on Tuesday.

Serski said Ukrainian troops continued to advance and had taken control of 40 square kilometers (15 square miles) of territory in the past 24 hours.

“Fighting is ongoing across the entire front. Despite the high intensity of fighting, the situation is under control,” he added.

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Ukraine’s Western partners say the country has the right to defend itself, including by attacking across its border. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Tuesday he supported Ukraine’s actions but said Kiev officials had not consulted him about it beforehand.

Tusk said Russia’s military actions in Ukraine “bear the hallmarks of genocide and inhumane crimes, and Ukraine has the right to wage war in the most effective way to paralyze Russia’s aggressive intentions.”

The Kremlin’s military has stepped up its offensive in eastern Ukraine. The Ukrainian General Staff said on Tuesday that Russian troops launched 52 attacks in the past 24 hours in the small town of Pokrovsk, near the front line in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. That’s about double the number of daily attacks there a week ago.

Ukraine’s undermanned military struggled to stop the larger and better-equipped Russian forces in Donetsk.

The Ukrainian military claims that Ukrainian troops have captured about 1,000 square kilometers (386 square miles) of Russian territory since the offensive on Russian territory began on August 6. The purpose of the rapid advance into the Kursk region is a closely guarded military secret.

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Analysts say Ukraine’s desire to relieve pressure on the front by drawing Kremlin troops to defend Kursk and other border regions could also be a catalyst for the incident. If so, the increased pressure around Pokrovsk suggests Moscow is not taking the bait.

Ukraine’s ambitious move, the largest attack on Russia since World War II, has unnerved the Kremlin, prompting President Vladimir Putin to convene a meeting of top defense officials on Monday.

Apparently, Ukraine has been massing thousands of troops along the border in recent weeks — some Western analysts estimate as many as 12,000 — without Russia noticing or taking action.

Russian officials said about 121,000 people had been evacuated from Kursk or fled fighting-affected areas on their own. The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank, said geo-located footage it had seen showed Ukrainian troops had advanced as far as 24 kilometers (15 miles) from the border.

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Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Tuesday it had also prevented an attack by troops from Ukraine’s 82nd Air Assault Brigade on the town of Marinka, about 10 kilometers from Ukraine, appearing to support Russia’s claim.

Russian state television broadcast footage on Tuesday showing residents of evacuated areas queuing inside buildings and on the streets for food and water. Volunteers were shown handing out aid packages while Russian emergency ministry officials helped people, including children and the elderly, out of vehicles.

“There is no light, no communication, no water. Nothing. It’s like everyone has flown to another planet and you are alone. The birds are no longer singing,” an elderly man named Mikhail told Russian state television. “Helicopters and planes are circling over the yard, shells are flying everywhere. What can we do? We have abandoned everything.”

Putin said Ukraine’s bold move into Russia was motivated by an effort to foment unrest, but he said such efforts would fail.

The successful border breakthrough was also surprising because the Ukrainian front had been short of manpower as it was waiting for new brigades to complete their training.

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Dara Massicotte, an analyst at the Carnegie Endowment, said the Ukrainian breakthrough was a smart move because it exploited gaps between the various Russian commands in Kursk: border guards, Defense Ministry forces and Chechen forces that had been fighting on Russia’s side in the war.

Massicotte told TVX on Monday evening that Russian command and control in Kursk was divided.

The Ukrainian army’s General Staff announced on Tuesday that a 20-kilometer (12-mile) restricted movement zone would be set up on the Russian-Ukrainian border in the northeastern Sumy region bordering Kursk.

The statement said the measures were taken due to the increasing intensity of fighting in the region and the growing presence of Russian reconnaissance and sabotage forces in the area.

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Associated Press writers Emma Burrows and Jim Heinz in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed to this report.

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