Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed for the first time on Monday that the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) had been carrying out a military operation in southwestern Russia’s Kursk region all week.
Zelensky wrote that the AFU was now in control of approximately 1,000 kilometres of Russian territory, contradicting a claim made by acting Kursk Governor Alexey Smirnov in a meeting with Vladimir Putin earlier on Monday that the AFU had advanced just 12 kilometres into Russian territory, with a front line extending 40 kilometres.
Seeming to revel in a situation that has humiliated Putin and left him furious, Zelensky reminded the world of the Kursk disaster, when a Russian nuclear submarine sank in August 2000 and the entire crew perished due to Putin’s refusal to accept foreign offers of technical assistance. “And now we can see what the end for him is. And it is also Kursk. The disaster of his war,” Zelensky wrote.
“We are grateful to all soldiers and commanders for their resilience and decisive action,” Zelensky continued, adding that he had instructed Ukraine’s Interior Ministry and Security Service to “prepare a humanitarian plan” for the territory now under Ukrainian control.
Stressing that “Russia brought war to others, and now it is coming home,” Zelensky also wrote that he had instructed Ukraine’s Defence Ministry to submit a list of necessary actions for foreign allies to give permission to use long-range weapons to strike Russia.
