This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.
Ukrainian leaders, including President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and military commander Oleksandr Syrskiy, have spoken openly for the first time about their forces’ shock incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, with Zelenskiy saying that Moscow must be “forced to make peace.”
“Russia brought war to others — now it’s coming home. Ukraine has always wanted only peace, and we will certainly ensure peace,” he said in his nightly video address late on August 12.
“Russia must be forced to make peace if [Russian President Vladimir] Putin wants to fight so badly,” the Ukrainian leader said.
Zelenskiy has pressed his peace plan, which includes the withdrawal of Russian forces from occupied Ukrainian territory, while Putin has maintained his position — vehemently rejected by Kyiv — that Ukraine hand over all of four regions in eastern and southern Ukraine that Russia has partially occupied and claimed in their entirety.
Zelenskiy said the cross-border operation into Russia was “purely a security matter” for his country as he claimed that Ukrainian forces had captured areas near the border that Moscow had used to launch some 2,100 attacks against Ukraine’s Sumy region since June 1.
On August 12, while making his first public comments on the cross-border operation, Syrskiy said his forces had taken control of some 1,000 square kilometers of territory in the Kursk region.
Putin, meanwhile, has sought to reassure panicked citizens in the border area over Ukraine’s shock incursion into the Kursk region, even as evacuations mounted and local officials admitted the loss of dozens of settlements and that the situation remained “tense.”
“Twenty-eight settlements [with about 2,000 people] are under enemy control,” Kursk regional Governor Aleksei Smirnov told Putin. “The depth of penetration into the territory of the Kursk region is 12 kilometers, the width along the front is 40 kilometers.”
Putin cut Smirnov off, telling him that military departments would report on the width and depth of the penetration of Ukrainian forces and suggested that Smirnov dwell instead on socioeconomic issues and the assistance provided to residents.
It was not possible to verify battlefield claims, and many reports have suggested deeper incursions by Ukrainian forces.
In comments on August 12, Zelenskiy said he had ordered that a “humanitarian plan” be established for the areas taken by Ukrainian forces inside Russia.
Putin accused Kyiv of seeking to “destabilize” the situation in Russia’s border regions and he ordered his forces to “dislodge” Ukrainian troops.
“The enemy will, for sure, receive an adequate response, and all the goals we outlined, no doubt, will be reached,” Putin stressed.
He added that Ukraine’s offensive was not affecting Russian troops’ ongoing military efforts to capture more districts in Ukraine’ eastern region of Donbas.
He said Moscow would provide “unanimous support for all those in distress” while claiming that there was an increase in men seeking to enlist to fight.
Putin had previously announced that Russia had imposed what it called anti-terror measures in Kursk, and two nearby regions as well as Bryansk and Belgorod.
An August 10 announcement by the National Anti-Terrorism Committee said the decision had been made by Aleksandr Bortnikov — the head of the FSB intelligence service — in response to Ukraine’s “unprecedented attempt to destabilize the situation in a series of regions.”
The evacuation of civilians from the Kursk region was widened on August 12 to include the Belovsky district, which has a population of some 14,000 people, the district chief, Nikolai Volobuyev, said on Telegram.
“The situation is very tense. Anyone who can should independently come to the collection point in the village of Dolgie Budy or in the settlement of Bushmeno in the Oboyansky district. Buses will be provided. Anyone who is still in the area is kindly requested to leave the area,” Volobuyev wrote.
In a post on Telegram on August 11, Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed to have contained the Ukrainian incursion into Kursk.
On August 12, the governor of the western Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said on Telegram that the authorities were relocating residents of the Krasnoyaruzh district to “safer places” due to “activity” in the area by Ukrainian forces.
Ukrainian forces entered the Kursk region on August 6, the largest cross-border operation by Kyiv since Moscow launched its full-scale offensive more than two years ago.
Ukraine’s military claims it has captured a number of settlements in the Kursk region, as clips emerged purportedly showing troops seizing administrative buildings in Sverdlikovo and Poroz, while intense fighting has been reported in Sudzha, a town of about 5,000 people.
In southern Ukraine, Moscow-installed officials announced on August 12 that a fire at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine has been “completely extinguished.”
It was not clear what caused the fire, which started at a cooling tower at the plant at around 8 p.m. on August 11.
Zelenskiy accused Russia of lighting the fire and Ukraine’s Enerhoatom said Russia’s “negligence” or arson could have sparked it.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which has a presence at the vast six-reactor facility, said there had been no reported impact on nuclear safety at the site.
IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said that “reckless attacks” that “endanger nuclear safety at the plant and increase the risk of a nuclear accident” must stop immediately.
Grossi said the IAEA requested “immediate access” to the cooling tower to assess the damage.
