(Bloomberg) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on US and European allies to lift restrictions on the use of long-range weapons against Russia, saying his military’s cross-border incursion had exposed as “illusory” Kremlin threats of retaliation.
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The two-week-old operation to seize Russian territory in the Kursk region would have been viewed as crossing “the strictest of all red lines” for Russian President Vladimir Putin only a few months ago, Zelenskiy said in an address to Ukrainian diplomats late Monday. “The whole naive, illusory concept of so-called red lines regarding Russia, which dominated the assessment of the war by some partners, has crumbled these days.”
Ukrainian forces now control more than 1,250 square kilometers (483 square miles) of Russian territory and will continue to expand their presence in the Kursk region, Zelenskiy said. The claims couldn’t be independently verified.
The incursion that he said was planned in total secrecy — “no one knew about our preparations” — would have been unnecessary if Ukraine’s Western partners had allowed it to target Russian airfields and military bases with long-range weapons, Zelenskiy said. That had allowed Putin to continue attacking Ukraine and “to evade the search for peace” to bring the war to an end, he argued.
Russia’s military has repeatedly launched missiles, glide bombs and drones from the Kursk and neighboring Belgorod regions to strike Ukrainian cities including Kharkiv and Sumy that are close to their shared border.
Zelenskiy called on Ukraine’s diplomats to argue in the US and Europe for the “key defense decision” of lifting the limitations on long-range weapons. Putin’s response to the incursion in Kursk “demonstrates that there is no single rational reason to deny us,” he said.
While the US and the European Union were caught by surprise, they have largely endorsed the operation, even as they remain cautious about its prospects.
The Defense Ministry in Moscow said its forces were continuing “to repel” Ukrainian attempts to advance on Russian territory, though it gave no indication that they were regaining control of border areas.
Russia has continued attacks elsewhere along the front line, advancing in the eastern Donetsk region toward the city of Pokrovsk, an important logistics hub for Ukrainian forces. Local authorities have ordered an evacuation of civilians starting Tuesday.
Overnight, Ukraine said Russia launched two drone and missile attacks across nine regions, including Kyiv. In total, three out of four missiles and 25 out of 26 drones were intercepted, Ukrainian Air Defense Commander Mykola Oleshchuk said on Telegram.
Energy facilities in part of the northeastern Sumy region and an industrial enterprise in western Ternopil were hit, according to local authorities.
Ukraine’s capture of the swathe of border territory is the first foreign military offensive inside Russia since World War II. Acting Kursk region Governor Alexey Smirnov said early during the incursion that began Aug. 6 that some 120,000 residents had been evacuated and another 60,000 were waiting to leave their homes, though officials haven’t provided more recent data.
Belgorod regional Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said settlements in the border region faced repeated drone and shelling attacks in a Telegram post on Tuesday.
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