Ukraine's incursion into Russia continues to advance

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.

- TOM WATLING, CHRIS STEVENSON

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 yesterday 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.

Briefing the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky by video link, Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi said Kyiv’s military had seized 40 sq m of new territory over the past 24 hours. War monitors have put the total amount of captured land at closer to 800 sq km of territory. The substantial amount of land seized by Ukraine, made the more significant by the fact that it is in Russia rather than formerly occupied Ukrainian territory, amounts to more than double the area it took during the threemonth counteroffensive last summer, according to estimates.