kyiv said on Sunday that it had destroyed a second important bridge for Moscow’s forces in the Russian region of Kursk, where its troops have been leading an offensive for 12 days, without so far succeeding in slowing the Russian army’s push further south, in eastern Ukraine towards the logistics hub of Pokrovsk.
In recent days, the Ukrainian army has said it is anchoring its positions in the Kursk region while gradually advancing, claiming the capture of 82 localities and 1,150 square kilometers of Russian territory, “exactly as we planned,” according to President Volodymyr Zelensky. Ukraine wants to “create a buffer zone” on the territory of the aggressor,” he added Sunday evening.
Key information:
⇒ Kremlin says it “won’t talk” to Ukraine after Kursk offensive
⇒ Ukrainian incursion into Kursk aims to create a “buffer zone”, Zelensky claims
⇒ Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit Ukraine
Kremlin says it ‘won’t talk’ to Ukraine after Kursk offensive
Russia “will not talk” with Ukraine after kyiv launched an unprecedented offensive nearly two weeks ago in the Russian border region of Kursk, the Kremlin said on Monday.
“At this stage, given this adventure, we will not discuss,” Putin’s diplomatic adviser Yuri Ushakov told Russian media outlet Shot. “At this point, it would be completely inappropriate to start a negotiation process,” he added.
Ukrainian incursion into Kursk aimed at creating ‘buffer zone’, Zelensky says
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that the military incursion into Russia’s Kursk region was aimed at creating a “buffer zone” to prevent further attacks from Moscow across the border.
“Our main task in defensive operations is now to destroy as much of the Russian war potential as possible and to carry out maximum counteroffensive actions. This includes the creation of a buffer zone on the territory of the aggressor, namely our operation in the Kursk region,” he said in his night speech published on Telegram.
According to the American news agency AP, this is the first time that Volodymyr Zelensky has so clearly stated the objective of the operation in Kursk, which began on August 6 and allowed Ukraine to take 1,150 square kilometers of Russian soil. Earlier, the Ukrainian president had said that the operation was aimed at protecting the population of the border region of Sumy from Russian shelling.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit Ukraine
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will soon visit Ukraine, Indian diplomacy announced on Monday, after meeting Vladimir Putin in early July and while New Delhi traditionally maintains friendly ties with Russia.
India’s foreign ministry did not specify when Narendra Modi would visit “Poland and Ukraine,” but Indian media reported it would take place later this week. The Indian leader has struck a delicate balance between maintaining his country’s historically strong ties with Moscow and seeking closer security partnerships with Western countries as a bulwark against regional rival China.
“It is clear” that the sabotage of Nord Stream was ordered by Washington, says Moscow
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday that the sabotage of the Russian Nord Stream gas pipeline in 2022 in the Baltic Sea had been ordered by the United States.
“Even if […] “Ukrainians participated in this, it is clear that they could not have done it alone. It is clear that to carry out such an attack, the order came from the highest level, as they say, and the highest level for the West is, of course, Washington,” Sergei Lavrov told the Russian media outlet Izvestia.
Nearly 2,000 attacks on health centres in Ukraine since the start of the war
Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, 1,940 attacks on health centres have been recorded by the World Health Organization (WHO), which on Monday deplored their intensification and the increase in the number of victims. “This is the highest number ever recorded by WHO in a humanitarian emergency on a global scale,” the European branch of the WHO noted in a press release.
Attacks on health care facilities, which have been intensifying since December 2023, are increasingly dangerous, the UN organization also notes. “Last year, 24 deaths of health workers and patients were documented, but in the first 7.5 months of 2024, a total of 34 people died as a result of attacks on health care services” in Ukraine. In total, 166 people have died and 514 have been injured in these attacks since the beginning of the conflict.
State of emergency in Russian city hit by Ukrainian drones
Russian local authorities have declared a state of emergency in the southwestern Russian city of Proletarsk, where a Ukrainian drone strike on Sunday set fuel storage ablaze and injured at least 18 firefighters. Efforts to extinguish the fire were continuing on Monday, the Proletarsk district administration said on Telegram.
For its part, a source within the Ukrainian military intelligence service (GUR) confirmed to AFP on Sunday that drones had attacked the Kavkaz fuel and oil products storage facility, located in Proletarsk. According to this source, this facility supplied the Russian “military-industrial complex”.