Russia Ukraine war live: Kursk real dilemma for Putin says Biden as Kyiv strikes with 100 drones

Ukraine has said its forces are still advancing a week into its largest cross-border attack into Russia so far – but officials say that it has no interest in permanently keeping hold of the swathes of territory it has taken.

Ukraine blindsided Moscow by pouring troops into the western Russian region of Kursk last week in a surprise operation that Kyiv says has seen its forces take 1,000 sq km (390 sq miles) of land.

Ukraine said on Tuesday afternoon that its forces had taken control of 74 settlements in Kursk during its week-long assault, and that they had advanced about a mile over the previous 24 hours.

Ukraine shot down 17 out of 23 Russia-launched drones during an overnight attack, the country’s air force said this morning.

The Russian forces also launched two Kh-59/69 guided missiles to attack Ukraine, the air force said. Local authorities in several Ukrainian regions reported infrastructure damage following the attack.

Russian forces have been trying to advance for months on multiple fronts in the eastern Donetsk region, taking advantage of their greater troop numbers to inch towards cities like the Kyiv-held logistics hub of Pokrovsk.

Ukraine’s foreign ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi said: “It should be emphasized that the (Kursk) operation … helps the front line because it does not allow Russia to transfer additional units to the Donetsk region, complicates its military logistics.”

For now, there is no sign of a letup for Ukraine in the east where Kyiv’s military said earlier it had recorded the largest number of battles with Russian forces on the Pokrovsk front in a single day since before the Kursk incursion.

“Ukraine is not interested in taking the territory of the Kursk region, but we want to protect the lives of our people,” Mr Tykhyi said.

Ukraine has noted Russian troops moving from the south to other areas, likely including Kursk, this week, military spokesperson Dmytro Lykhoviy said, adding that the number of attacks had not decreased as a result and it was too early to draw conclusions.

Russia’s air defences destroyed 117 drones and four tactical missiles launched overnight by Ukraine targeting several regions including Kursk, its defence ministry said this morning.

The missiles and 37 drones were destroyed over the Kursk region, the ministry said, while 37 drones were destroyed over the Voronezh region, among others.

The Russian ministry did not give a total of air weapons Ukraine launched.

The governor of Russia’s border area of Belgorod, Vyacheslav Gladkov, declared a regionwide state of emergency today, citing continued attacks by Ukrainian forces.

“The situation in the Belgorod region continues to be extremely difficult and tense,” Mr Gladkov said. Daily shelling by the Ukrainian armed forces had destroyed houses, killing and wounding civilians, he added.

“Therefore, we are making a decision, starting today, to declare a regional emergency situation throughout the Belgorod region with a subsequent appeal to the government to declare a federal emergency situation.”

An official in the Kursk border region of Russia on Monday urged more residents to evacuate due to the “very tense situation” in the area, where Russian forces are still scrambling to respond to a surprise Ukrainian attack after almost a week of fierce fighting.

Russia’s emergency authorities say more than 76,000 people have fled their homes in areas of Kursk, where Ukrainian troops and armor poured across the border on Aug. 6, reportedly driving as deep as 30 kilometers (19 miles) into Russia and sowing alarm.

Ukrainian forces swiftly rolled into the town of Sudzha about 10 kilometers (6 miles) over the border after launching the attack. They reportedly still hold the western part of the town, which is the site of an important natural gas transit station.

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Sasha Skochilenko and Sofya Subbotina are planning to get married. That wasn’t an option in their native Russia, but it’s possible now that they live in Germany, which recognizes same-sex weddings.

“We don’t know how or in which city we will do it, but that’s the plan,” Skochilenko, 33, told The Associated Press, looking lovingly at Subbotina, who radiated happiness.

They reunited earlier this month in Germany, shortly after Skochilenko and other Russian prisoners were exchanged in a historic East-West swap — a happy if unlikely ending to an over two-year ordeal.

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Ukraine has taken control of 74 settlements in Russia’s region of Kursk and was still advancing, making gains of one to three km in the last 24 hours. This is Kyiv’s biggest cross-border assault of the war to date.

“Despite difficult and intense battles, our forces continue to advance in the Kursk region, and our state’s ‘exchange fund’ is growing. Seventy-four settlements are under Ukrainian control,” Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Shown speaking by video link, the Ukrainian leader asked his top commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, to develop the next “key steps” in the operation. “Everything is being executed according to the plan,” Syrskyi replied, without elaborating.

Ukraine blindsided Moscow by pouring thousands of troops into the western Russian region of Kursk last week. The surprise operation has given Ukraine its biggest battlefield gains since 2022 after months on the backfoot.

Kyiv’s forces have also rounded up Russian prisoners of war who could be swapped for captured Ukrainian fighters, what Mr Zelensky referred to as an expanding “exchange fund”.

Russia needs to be forced to participate in a summit on peace as it would not do so willingly, Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said.

Mr Podolyak told national TV that one of the methods of coercion is actions on the battlefield, referring to Ukraine’s unprecedented cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region.

“Simple calls to Russia do not work, only a set of coercive tools works,” he said, referring to economic and diplomatic pressure as well.

He added that by actions in Russia’s border regions Ukraine was resolving the key issue of its own security.

“This is destruction of war infrastructure and formation of so-called sanitary zones so that Russia cannot use there … equipment that strikes deep into the territory of Ukraine,” he said.

A week after the launch of the incursion, Ukraine said it controls 74 Russian settlements and continues its advance.

Evidence continues to indicate that Monday’s fire at the Russia-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine did not start at the base of the cooling tower or by a foreign object, the UN nuclear body International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said.

“The evidence gathered reinforces our conclusion that the main fire seems unlikely to be at the base of the cooling tower,” the IAEA chief Rafael Mariano Grossi said.

He said “foreign objects or materials were visible” in the damaged tower.

The Russian management of the plant told the IAEA that the tower may need to be dismantled, the IAEA said.