Putin vows revenge for Kursk attack as Ukraine claims to control 1,000 sq km – live

Ukraine’s biggest attack on Russian territory since the start of the war was aimed at improving Kyiv’s negotiating position ahead of possible peace talks, Vladimir Putin said in his latest comments on the Kursk incursion.

Ukrainian forces rammed through the Russian border last Tuesday and swept across some western parts of Russia’s Kursk region, a surprise attack that laid bare the weakness of Russian border defences in the area.

Putin, in his most detailed public remarks on the incursion to date, said Ukraine “with the help of its Western masters” was trying to improve its position ahead of possible talks.

He questioned what negotiations there could be with an enemy he accused of firing indiscriminately at Russian civilians and nuclear facilities.

“The main task, of course, is for the defence ministry to squeeze out, to knock out the enemy from our territories,” Putin said, adding that Russian forces were accelerating their advance along the rest of the 1,000 km (620-mile) main front.

Ukraine has identified North Korean missiles fired by Russian forces on Kyiv in an attack which killed two people, Volodymyr Zelensky said.

“One of the North Korean missiles launched by the Russians, unfortunately, killed two people in the Kyiv region—a father and his four-year-old son,” Mr Zelensky said. Three others were injured in the attack and are receiving the necessary care, he said.

“Our experts have clearly identified the type of missile and know exactly from which area in Russian territory it was launched. It will be entirely just for Ukrainians to respond to this terror in the way necessary to stop it – with appropriate long-range strikes on the locations from which missiles are launched in Russia, and by effectively destroying Russian military logistics,” he said.

“Terror must always be defeated—this is a fundamental principle of protecting life,” the Ukrainian president said.

Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address that the war was now coming back to Russia after Moscow had taken fighting to other countries.

He said the major cross-border assault into the western region of Kursk was a matter of security for Ukraine and that Kyiv had captured areas from where Russia launched strikes.

“Russia must be forced to make peace if Putin wants to fight so badly,” Mr Zelensky said.

He added that the northeastern Sumy region, which lies across the border from Kursk, had been attacked almost 2,100 times by Russian cross-border strikes since 1 June.

“Russia brought war to others, now it’s coming home. Ukraine has always wanted only peace, and we will certainly ensure peace,” he said.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said its representatives inspected the damaged cooling tower at the Russia-controlled Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant in Ukraine and found no immediate sign of tyre marks or drone remains.

The team also assessed that it was unlikely that the primary source of the fire began at the base of the cooling tower, the IAEA said in a statement on its website last night.

“The team has not been able to draw definitive conclusions (on the cause of fire) on the basis of the findings and observations so far,” the agency said.

The fire began at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant on Sunday, and Russia and Ukraine have blamed each other for starting it. Moscow has claimed a drone attack hit one of the cooling towers, Russian state news agency RIA reported, without providing evidence.

Ukraine’s top military commander says his forces now control 1,000 sq km (386 square miles) of Russia’s Kursk region. It is the first time a Ukrainian military official has publicly commented on the gains made in a lightning incursion that has embarrassed the Kremlin.

Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi made the statement in a video posted last night to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s Telegram channel. In the video, he briefed the president on the frontline situation.

“The troops are fulfilling their tasks. Fighting continues actually along the entire front line. The situation is under our control,” Syrskyi said.

Mr Zelensky confirmed for the first time that the Ukrainian military is inside the Kursk region. On Telegram, he praised his country’s soldiers and commanders “for their steadfastness and decisive actions” but he did not elaborate.

The Ukrainian operation is taking place under tight secrecy, and its goals remain unclear. The manoeuvre caught the Kremlin’s forces off guard after months of unrelenting Russian attacks in recent months that have made gains through Ukrainian defences at several points along the frontline in eastern Ukraine.

Russian president Vladimir Putin said the incursion, which has caused more than 100,000 civilians to flee, is an attempt by Kyiv to stop Moscow’s offensive in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region and gain leverage in possible future peace talks.

Backing up the colonel’s assessment, an official who has worked for Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s administration as an adviser and in a variety of other important roles, says the Kursk assault will not be a brief incursion but is likely to broaden its scope with the intention of holding onto captured territory.

He said that thousands more troops – potentially several brigades – are standing by, “including some of the best, most experienced troops and brigades” to fight.

Moscow’s forces are still scrambling to respond to the cross-border assault by Kyiv’s troops after almost a week of fierce fighting in the Kursk region, which borders northeast Ukraine. Acting Kursk governor Alexei Smirnov reported to Russian president Vladimir Putin that Ukrainian forces had pushed at least 7.5 miles (12km) over the border across a 24-mile front and currently control 28 Russian settlements. Ukraine’s army chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said around 390 sq m (1,000 sq km) in the Kursk region are under the control of his country’s troops.