Ukraine now controls 74 settlements in Russia’s Kursk border region, the country’s president Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday.
The governor of the Kursk region, where Ukraine is mounting a week-long incursion, previously said on Monday that Ukraine controls 28 settlements.
“There are 74 settlements under the control of Ukraine,” Zelensky said in his evening address.
Ukraine had said earlier on Tuesday that it would not hold on to Russian territory captured in its surprise cross-border incursion and offered to stop raids if Moscow agreed to a “just peace”.
The president said that “despite difficult, intense fighting, the advance of our forces in the Kursk region continues”.
Zelensky said that Ukraine has been able to “replenish” its numbers of Russian POWs to exchange for its own troops and “preparation for our next steps continues”.
He posted footage showing him holding a video call with military chief Oleksandr Syrsky.
Syrsky tells him: “As of today, our troops have advanced in some areas by 1-3km”.
In the last day, Ukraine has taken control of “40 sq km of territory”, Syrsky adds, after saying on Monday that the troops hold around 1,000 sq km of Russian territory.
“Fighting is ongoing along the entire front line. The situation is under control despite the high intensity of fighting,” Syrsky said.
Ukrainian forces entered Russia’s Kursk region last Tuesday, taking over two dozen settlements in the biggest attack by a foreign army on Russian soil since World War II. Russia said on Tuesday it had fended off new attacks in Kursk.
Foreign ministry spokesman Georgiy Tykhy on Tuesday said Kyiv was not interested in “taking over” Russian territory and defended Ukraine’s actions as “absolutely legitimate”.
“The sooner Russia agrees to restore a just peace … the sooner the raids by the Ukrainian defences forces into Russia will stop,” he told reporters.
Ukraine meanwhile said it was imposing movement restrictions in a 20km (12-mile) zone in the Sumy region along the border with the Kursk region due to an “increase in the intensity of hostilities” and “sabotage” activities.
Russia’s defence ministry said it had “foiled” new Ukrainian attacks in Kursk by “enemy mobile groups in armoured vehicles to break through deep into Russian territory”.
Alexander Bortnikov, head of Russia’s FSB security service, also said in a statement that Ukraine had carried out the attack “with the support of the collective West”.
Since launching its invasion in February 2022, Russia has captured territory in southern and eastern Ukraine and subjected Ukrainian cities to missile and drone barrages.
Ukraine’s offensive was the biggest cross-border action since the invasion, and it caught Russia off guard.
“They didn’t protect the border,” a Ukrainian serviceman who took part in the offensive and identified himself as Ruzhyk said.
“They only had anti-personnel mines scattered around trees at the side of the road and a few mines that they managed to quickly throw along the highways,” he said.
A 27-year-old squad leader, who identified himself as Faraon, was sparing but direct in his description of battles in Kursk.
“I saw a lot of death in the first few days. It was terrifying at first, but then we got used to it,” he said. “There have been many deaths,” he repeated as he stood next to a forest road leading to the frontier, without elaborating.
Ukrainian military analyst Mykola Bielieskov said: “Russian complacency prevailed”.
“Russia assumed that since it had initiative elsewhere, Ukraine wouldn’t dare to do things we’ve seen,” he said, referring to months of Russian advances along the front.
ISW figures also showed that Russian troops had captured 1,360 sq km of Ukrainian territory since the start of 2024.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has vowed to “dislodge” Ukrainian troops.
Putin told a televised meeting with officials on Monday that “one of the obvious goals of the enemy is to sow discord” and “destroy the unity and cohesion of Russian society”.
Putin also said Ukraine wanted to “improve its negotiating position” for any future talks with Moscow.
Regional governor Alexei Smirnov told the same meeting that Ukrainian forces had entered at least 12km into the region and the new front was now 40km wide.
Russia had conceded earlier that Ukrainian forces had penetrated up to 30km into Russian territory in places.
A Ukrainian security official said, on condition of anonymity this weekend, that Ukraine sought to “stretch the positions of the enemy, to inflict maximum losses and to destabilise the situation in Russia as they are unable to protect their own border”.
The Ukrainian official said thousands of Ukrainian troops were involved in the operation.
