Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russian troops have mounted a counteroffensive in response to Ukraine’s cross-border strikes in Russia’s western region of Kursk.
Zelenskyy told a news conference in Kyiv with Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda on Thursday that the Russians had begun counteroffensive actions.
His remarks followed an announcement made by Russia’s defense ministry earlier in the day that its troops took back control of a total of 10 settlements in Kursk.
Ukrainian forces have been carrying out cross-border attacks in Kursk since last month. Kyiv says its troops had seized about 1,300 square kilometers of the region and took control of 100 settlements as of late August.
A US think tank, the Institute for the Study of War, says the potential prospects of Russia’s counterattacks on Wednesday are unclear and the situation remains fluid.
It says Russian forces may intend to temporarily bisect the Ukrainian line of defense in Kursk before beginning a more organized and well-equipped effort to push Ukrainian forces out of Russian territory.
Attention is focused on whether Russia has launched its full-fledged campaign to recapture the occupied land and whether their counteroffensive will become a turning point for Ukraine’s cross-border attacks.
Zelenskyy also announced on social media on Thursday that a civilian vessel carrying Ukrainian grain to Egypt had been hit by a Russian missile while sailing in the Black Sea. He said there have been no reports of casualties.
He also said Russian shelling hit vehicles of the International Committee of the Red Cross in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, killing three Ukrainians on a humanitarian mission.
Zelenskyy criticized the attack, calling it “another Russian war crime.”