Volodymyr Zelensky has acknowledged Ukraine’s cross-border offensive into Russia’s Kursk region for the first time.
In a late night video address on Saturday, the Ukrainian president described the offensive as a means to restore justice after Russia’s invasion.
Ukraine launched its surprise offensive on Tuesday, advancing over 10km (six miles) into Russian territory – its deepest incursion into Russia since the war began in February 2022.
Mr Zelensky thanked Ukraine’s “warriors” in his address, adding that the plan to “push the war on to the aggressor’s territory” was discussed with the country’s top military commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi.
“Ukraine is proving that it can indeed restore justice and ensure the necessary pressure on the aggressor,” Mr Zelensky said.
Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday that its air defence units destroyed 14 drones launched by Ukraine and four Tochka-U tactical ballistic missiles over the Kursk region.
The ministry added that drones were downed over the Voronezh, Belgorod, Bryansk and Orlov regions.
In the early hours of Sunday morning, Russia also targeted Kyiv and several other regions in a drone and missile attack, according to local officials.
Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said that air defence systems on the outskirts of the city repelled the attacks.
“Air defence units operating, air raid alert continues,” Mr Klitschko wrote on Telegram.
Moscow imposed an enhanced security regime in three of its border regions on Saturday in an attempt to respond to Ukraine’s offensive.
Alexander Bortnikov, the director of the Federal Security Service (FSB), ordered an anti-terrorist regime be imposed on Kursk, Bryansk and Belgorod regions – which have a combined area of nearly 92,000 square km.
Anti-terrorism measures endow security services with sweeping powers to lockdown an area, control communications and limit a host of usual freedoms. Increased law enforcement and military deployments are also likely.
Russia’s TASS state news agency said on Saturday that more than 76,000 people had been evacuated.
Ukraine’s offensive appeared to continue on Saturday night, with Kursk Governor Alexei Smirnov saying early on Sunday that there were injured people from a “treacherous” Ukrainian attack.
Earlier he reported that 13 people were injured late on Saturday after the wreckage of a downed Ukrainian missile fell on a multi-storey building in the regional capital Kursk.
The governors of Russia’s neighbouring Voronezh and Belgorod regions also reported a Ukrainian drone attack overnight, but did not mention any injuries.
In the Kyiv region, emergency services announced on Sunday that a 35-year-old man and his four-year-old son were killed when a rocket fragment fell on residential houses.
Three more were wounded, including a 13-year-old child.
Ukraine’s rare offensive into Russia began on Tuesday morning, when up to 1,000 troops, supported by tanks and armoured vehicles, entered the Kursk region, Russia claimed.
The Ukrainians have since reportedly seized a number of villages, while also threatening the regional town of Sudzha.
In a video posted on social media on Friday, soldiers from the 61st Brigade holding a Ukrainian flag appeared to be standing outside a Gazprom facility in the Russian town of Sudzha.
“Everything is calm in the town,” they said, adding: “All the buildings are safe, strategic object of Gazprom in Sudzha is under the control of the 99th Mechanised Battalion.”
Zelensky finally addressed the incursion into Kursk directly on Saturday, only hinting at the attack in previous days.
While neither Zelensky nor the military in Kiev have provided any further details on the incursion, the Ukrainian president said on Saturday: “Ukraine is proving that it can indeed restore justice and ensure the necessary pressure on the aggressor.”
The UN nuclear agency urged both Russia and Ukraine to “exercise maximum restraint” on Friday as the fighting was edging closer to the Kursk nuclear power plant – one of Russia’s biggest nuclear facilities.
International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi said measures must be taken “to avoid a nuclear accident with the potential for serious radiological consequences”.
The power plant is located about 60km north-east of Sudzha.
On Friday, the US Department of Defence also announced that it will be providing Ukraine with additional security assistance to meet its “critical security and defence needs”.
The Presidential Drawdown Authority package, which has an estimated value of $125m (£98m), will include stringer missiles, ammunition for high mobility artillery rocket systems, artillery ammunition, multi-mission radars, demolitions equipment and small arms ammunition.
A US Defence Department spokesperson said the use of American equipment in the cross-border assault did not cross red lines.
“It is consistent with our policy and we have supported Ukraine from the very beginning to defend themselves against attacks that are coming across the border and for the need for crossfires,” said Sabrina Singh.
“They are taking actions to protect themselves from attacks that are coming from a region that are within the US policy of where they can operate, you know, our weapons, our systems, our capabilities.”
But Ms Singh added: “We don’t support long-range attacks into Russia.”
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