Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday that Russia needed to “feel” the consequences of the war, as a major Ukrainian military advance across Russia’s border reached a third day.Pro-Kiev forces entered Russia’s southwestern Kursk region on Tuesday morning, according to the Russian military, deploying around 1,000 soldiers and more than 20 armored vehicles and tanks. It was believed to be Ukraine’s largest-scale attack on Russia since the war began, with independent analysts suggesting Kiev forces had advanced as far as 10 kilometers (6 miles) into Russia. “Russia brought war to our soil and it should pay the price,” Zelenskiy said in an evening speech, without directly mentioning the attack.
A Russian military blogger, currently the most accurate source, reported that fighting is taking place on the highway east of Korenvo, 13 miles north of the border, while western Suzha, about six miles on the Russian side, appears to be under Ukrainian control.The Russian Defense Ministry said on Thursday that its forces “continue to eliminate” Ukrainian attackers in the Suzha and Koreneva districts, targeting the invaders with ground forces, artillery, aerial and missile attacks.
A Russian guided bomb landed on a school ground in the Sumy region bordering Kursk in northern Ukraine on Thursday, killing a young man and his six-year-old brother, officials said, after Moscow’s military stepped up airstrikes.Sumy regional military governor Volodymyr Artyukh told state television that the area had been subjected to an unprecedented number of air strikes, with Russia dropping 56 guided bombs in the past 24 hours.
A man was killed by Ukrainian artillery fire in the town of Shevekino in Russia’s Belgorod Oblast, the region’s governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, wrote on his Telegram channel on Thursday.It also said another civilian was injured.
In an interview published on Thursday, President Zelensky’s chief of staff said the second Kyiv-led peace summit should not be treated as the start of negotiations with Russia. Andriy Yermak told the Evropeiska Pravda newspaper that the goal of the second summit was to agree on a jointly approved peace plan for the participants and present it to Russia. “It is possible that Russian representatives will be present at the second summit and hand over this plan,” he said.
Russian artillery fire killed at least four people on Thursday in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, the heart of a slow Russian military advance along the eastern front line.Donetsk Oblast Governor Vadim Filashkin said at least two people were killed in shelling of a residential area of Kostyantynivka west of Bakhmut, which fell to Russian forces a year ago after months of heavy fighting. Filashkin later reported two more people were killed and 11 wounded in Seridove, further southwest.
Russia’s internet monitoring service reported a widespread outage on YouTube, a major source of opposition opinion, on Thursday.Russian lawmakers have blamed the slowdown, which began in mid-July, on Google’s failure to upgrade its facilities in Russia since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, but the company and tech experts dispute that.
Mexico’s president on Thursday rejected a request from the Ukrainian government to arrest Russian President Vladimir Putin if he defies an international arrest warrant and attends Mexico’s presidential inauguration scheduled for October. “We can’t do that,” President Andrés Manuel López Obrador told reporters at a regular government news conference. “It’s not our responsibility.”
Russian prosecutors have sought a 15-year prison sentence for a dual U.S.-Russian national charged with “treason” for donating $50 to a pro-Ukraine group in 2022.In February, the FSB security service announced that it had arrested ballerina Ksenia Karelina, who lives in the United States and was visiting family in Russia, on suspicion of providing funds to the Ukrainian military.
Courts in Russia and Russian-controlled territories on Thursday handed down lengthy prison sentences to Ukrainians accused of “terrorism” and “espionage” attempts in favor of Kiev.A court in southern Russia found Tetyana Kryuchko guilty of participating in a “terrorist” group and plotting “terrorist acts” and sentenced her to 12 years in prison. In the eastern Luhansk region, which is almost entirely under Russian control, the Supreme Court sentenced Yuri Galetsky to 13 years for espionage. He was found guilty of passing on information about military movements.
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said on Thursday it “regrets” Niger’s decision to sever diplomatic ties. A few days ago, neighboring Mali made a similar decision, accusing Ukrainian forces of supporting rebel groups in the African nation of Niger.Both Niger and Mali are run by military regimes that seized power in recent coups and have turned to Russia and its mercenary group, Wagner, for support.
