Ukraine's Kursk offensive diverted thousands of Russian troops, says Zelensky

KYIV - Ukraine’s offensive into the Russian border region of Kursk diverted around 40,000 Russian troops away from the front line, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sept 19.

Kyiv launched its Kursk offensive on Aug 6

in a bid to pull Moscow’s forces away from eastern Ukraine, where the Russian army has captured a string of villages in recent months.

The situation in the eastern Donetsk region is “extremely challenging” but Ukraine has managed to reduce Moscow’s combat capabilities there, Mr Zelensky said in his evening address.

“A separate issue was the operation in the Kursk region. We have already managed to divert about 40,000 Russian troops to this area,” Mr Zelensky said, adding that “Our actions go on.”

Ukraine’s Kursk offensive caught the Kremlin off guard more than two years into its invasion and forced Moscow to scramble reinforcements to the area.

Russia claims to have taken back more than a dozen villages from Ukraine in the Kursk region since last week in a counteroffensive.

But on Sept 18, a Ukrainian official told AFP that counteroffensive had been “stopped”.

Separately on Sept 19, regional authorities in Ukraine’s north-east Sumy region accused Russia of bombing a nursing home housing more than 200 people.

One person was killed in the strike, which also injured 13 others, the Sumy region’s military administration said on Telegram.

Mr Zelensky denounced the strike in his evening address, saying Russia “could not have been unaware” this was a nursing home for the elderly and not a military base.

“We will definitely respond to the Russian army for this terror. In a tangible manner,” he said. AFP