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Ukraine continues to advance towards Russia’s Kursk region, the commander in chief said.
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He said Ukraine had 74 settlements under control as of Tuesday.
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He said Ukraine added more than 40 square kilometers to its controls on Tuesday.
Ukraine has continued its advance into the Russian region of Kursk According to the commander in chief, the country has 74 settlements under its control.
The update came from Oleksandr Syrskyi, the head of the Ukrainian military, and was shared by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a Telegram update.
Syrskyi said his forces controlled 74 settlements in Russia’s Kursk region on Tuesday.
Syrskyi also said that Ukrainian forces had advanced 2.1 kilometers (1.3 miles) into Russian territory on Tuesday alone and taken control of more than 38 square kilometers (15 square miles) of additional Russian territory, according to Ukrainian news agency The Kyiv Independent. reported.
Ukraine’s claim would amount to a continued advance into the region, despite Russia’s efforts to stop it.
The surprise attack started on August 6 and is now over a week old.
Syrskyi said Monday that Ukraine had then seized about 386 square miles of Russian territory – nearly as much territory as Moscow’s tiresome advance elsewhere has taken from Ukraine so far in all of 2024.
Independent analyses also showed that Ukraine increasingly controls more Russian territory.
The French agency AFP reported that Ukraine had at least 308 square miles of Russian territory under its control on Monday, citing an analysis of data from the Institute for the Study of War, a think tank.
It is not clear how the Ukrainian side defines the 74 settlements it claims to control.
The ISW said in an update on Tuesday that “it is unclear whether Zelensky meant that Ukrainian troops are active in 74 settlements or whether he was referring to another type of geographical administrative unit.”
According to the organization, it is certain that Ukraine is active in about 41 settlements. Some “extremely small” settlements are also mentioned, but they are not included.
The attack of Ukraine seemed to surprise Russiawhich led to anger and recriminations from Russian nationalist bloggers who, in the absence of a free media, provide much of the domestic commentary on the war.
A Ukrainian deputy commander said the soldiers who protect Russia’s borders “It was mainly children who fulfilled their compulsory military service.”
Ukrainian troops told the BBC that they could easily enter Kursk.
Ukraine has been largely silent about the operation and authorities have not disclosed a motive for the advance into Russia.
But experts told Business Insider that his motives may include: They want to expand Russian resources in Ukraine, they want to demonstrate their strengths to Western countries, they want to give their tired troops a morale boost, and they want to secure negotiating positions that they can use with Russia.
The US, a key ally of Ukraine, has been largely silent about Ukraine’s operation. But it has also been unsympathetic to Russian complaints about the attack.
John Kirby, the US national security communications adviser, said on Monday that if Russian President Vladimir Putin is concerned about the advance, “there is an easy solution: He can just get out of Ukraine and end it all.”
Read the original article at Company Insider