This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.
Kyiv says it is continuing its two-week-old incursion into Russia’s border region of Kursk with the aim of creating a buffer zone to protect civilians along the border, but Moscow is pressing unabated its offensive farther south in Donetsk region, where it claims to have captured a key logistics hub on August 20.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine now controls 1,250 kilometers and 92 settlements in Kursk since it launched its surprise cross-border operation on August 6, and Russia acknowledged that three key bridges over the Seym River were destroyed, cutting important supply lines for Moscow forces.
However, Kyiv’s aim is not territorial gain and has a clear scope — ensuring the safety against incessant Russian shelling and strikes from across the border, one of Zelenskiy’s senior advisers, Mykhaylo Podolyak, told Current Time, adding that Ukraine’s operation is adhering to international legislation and protects the civilian population.
“Ukraine does not intend to seize populated areas or occupy this territory,” Podolyak said on August 19.
“This is a different type of war, a war that is clearly spelled out in international law and in conventions that regulate behavior toward combatants and especially toward noncombatants, toward the civilian population on this territory.”
Podolyak told Current Time that Moscow has been using border areas to strike civilian infrastructure up to 70-80 kilometers inside Ukraine.
“Along the border, including in the Kursk region, artillery is deployed 1 or 2 kilometers from the state border, ballistic launchers are deployed, multiple-launch rocket systems are deployed,” he said.
“Take [Ukraine’s] Sumy region, located just opposite Kursk region. About 500-600 shellings were carried out daily targeting the territory of the Sumy region. Squeezing out Russian weapons to a depth of 100 kilometers will already make it possible to protect the civilian population in the Ukrainian border area, for example in the Chernihiv, Sumy, and Kharkiv regions.”
Referring to the civilian population that remains in the territory now under Ukrainian military’s control, Podolyak said Kyiv is fulfilling all the requirements of international humanitarian legislation.
“We keep a register of civilians. International law very strictly requires that you bear actual responsibility for residents, citizens, and noncombatants. International humanitarian law clearly spells out your responsibility in the zone of actual control if there is military action there. Of course, registers will be compiled, our guys are looking at who is there, who needs to be sent where, and so on.”
Ukrainian lawmaker Roman Kostenko told RFE/RL on August 20 that no evacuation of local residents from Kursk areas controlled by Ukraine’s armed forces to Ukraine is under way at the moment.
Kostenko added that the Kyiv-installed command office is ensuring the protection of local residents in Russian territories under Ukraine’s control, in accordance with Geneva conventions.
On August 19, Zelenskiy again pushed for permission from Ukraine’s allies to use long-range weapons to strike targets deep inside Russia.
“Ukraine is separated from halting the advance of the Russian Army on the front by only one decision we await from our partners: the decision on long-range capabilities,” he said.
The United States and other allies of Ukraine have placed restrictions on the use of the weapons over concerns that it could escalate the war.
Podolyak, however, said such an escalation would only occur if Ukraine acted in a similar way to Russia and struck civilian areas, which would put Kyiv morally on the same footing as Moscow.
“There is definitely no point in striking big cities or populated areas as such. This will not solve any problem and would equalize Ukraine and Russia in the type of warfare, which is absolutely pointless,” Podolyak said.
The United States, Ukraine’s main ally and supplier of modern weapons systems, remains opposed for the time being to allowing Ukraine to use long-range western arms to strike deeper inside Russia.
“I will say that our policy has not changed. I just don’t have anything to add to that,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said in response to a question on the subject on August 19.
Meanwhile, Russia on August 20 claimed to have captured Nyu-York, an important logistics hub in Donetsk, as it continues its grinding advance toward the city of Pokrovsk, where Ukrainian authorities have ordered the mandatory evacuation of children.
“As a result of the actions of the units of the center group of forces, a large grouping of enemy troops was defeated and one of the largest settlements in Toretsk agglomeration, the strategically important logistics hub of [Nyu-York].. was liberated,” the Russian Defense Ministry said on Telegram.
The capture of Nyu-York, which had a population of around 10,000 before the start of the war, could not be independently confirmed.
On August 19, Russia said it had captured the nearby town of Zalizne, also part of Toretsk urban agglomeration.
Ukrainian air-defense systems repelled a missile strike on Kyiv early on August 20, the fifth missile attack by Russia’s military on the Ukrainian capital this month, the air force reported.
Elsewhere, a large fire broke out in the western Ukrainian city of Ternopil, regional officials said, urging people to remain inside.
The cause of the fire was not immediately known.
