Ukraine continued its offensive in Russia’s Kursk region on Friday as Russia consolidated its advances on the eastern front, in a contest that takes on the character of a duel to deal the enemy the most painful blow possible in different theatres of operations. If in Kursk the Ukrainian troops keep the Russian forces under tension, in the Donbas, on the Eastern Front, the situation is the opposite.
Although kyiv has not yet reported on the actions of its troops in the Kursk region, reports from the Russian military command indicate that Ukrainian forces continue to make continued attempts to expand the Russian territory under their control.
A fair negotiation
“We need to inflict major tactical defeats on Russia. In the Kursk region we can clearly see how the military tool is being used objectively to persuade Russia to start a fair negotiation process,” he wrote in X Mijailo Podoliakadvisor to the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky.
For the kyiv authorities, a just peace includes the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine and the restoration of the country’s territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders.
The presidential adviser stressed that the Ukrainian offensive in Kursk, which began on the 6th, is also an “important instrument for influencing public opinion in Russia, which is beginning to change as the war moves deeper into its territory.”
According to the latest data provided by kyiv, Ukrainian forces control more than 80 towns and a territory of 1,150 square kilometres in the Kursk region.
The Russian Defense Ministry reported that the country’s army has repelled several attacks in that border region. and has bombed enemy positions in the neighbouring Ukrainian province of Sumi, from where kyiv launched its ground incursion, the first suffered by Russia on its territory since World War II.
Crimea under attack
On the southern front, Ukraine tried to attack the annexed Crimean peninsula with missiles and dronesthe Russian military command reported on Telegram.
“Tonight, air defense systems repelled a massive attack by twelve US-made ATACMS tactical missiles on the Crimean bridge. All missiles were destroyed,” the military statement said.
Russia maintains its advance
Meanwhile, the authorities of the Ukrainian district of Pokrovskin the Donetsk region, admitted on Friday that Russian troops are only 10.5 kilometers away and have reiterated their recommendation to evacuate the area.
Volodymyr Zamotaev, the head of the district administration, whose eponymous capital had about 60,000 inhabitants before the war, said the situation was now “threatening.”
The military commander of the town of Mirnograd, Yuri Tretiak, said that in the town, located between Pokrovsk and the front, There are still 20,000 civilians, 1,000 of them children, and he urged the population to leave as soon as possible.
According to the General Staff of the Ukrainian Army, in the past day 144 fights were recorded throughout the countryof which 41 were enemy attacks in the Pokrovsk sector, where Russia has been making slow but steady progress in recent days.
The Russian Ministry of Defense reported in turn that Russian forces took control of the town of Sergievka and continued their advance towards the city of Kramatorsk, one of the main Ukrainian strongholds in the Donetsk region.
From Sergeyivka, Moscow’s troops have Kramatorsk within cannon range, as they are separated by just ten kilometers.
