[Korrespondent] 20:54 Zelensky said that the Ukrainian Armed Forces control more than 1,250 square kilometers of the Kursk region and 92 populated areas. "The strengthening of our positions, stabilization of certain areas and replenishment of the exchange fund continues," the president noted. According to him, this operation has become "our largest investment in the process of liberating Ukrainians from Russian captivity, this is one of our goals."
Zelensky also stated that if Western partners lifted all restrictions on range, Ukraine "would not need to physically enter, in particular, the Kursk region" in order to protect Ukrainian citizens in the border area and destroy Russia's potential for aggression.
"Just a few months ago, many in the world, if they heard that we were planning an operation like the one in Kursk Oblast, would have said that it was unrealistic and that it was supposedly crossing the reddest of all the red lines that Russia has. That is why, in fact, no one heard about our preparations. And now the real success of our soldiers speaks for itself: our active defensive actions on the other side of the border and Putin's inability to protect his territory from such defensive actions of ours are very eloquent," the president emphasized.
According to the head of state, "our active preventive defense is the most effective counteraction to Russian terrorism and ensuring a real complication of the situation for the aggressor state. And secondly, we now have an extremely important ideological change, namely: the entire naive, illusory concept of the so-called red lines in relation to Russia, which reigned in the assessments of the war by some partners, crumbled the other day somewhere near Sudzha."
20:18 Russians have built two pontoon crossings across the Seim River in the Kursk region, east of the village of Zvannoye, Radio Liberty reports, citing satellite images. Earlier, it was reported that a similar crossing had been built east of the village of Glushkovo.
19:27 A tank with a white-red-white flag was spotted in the Kursk region. According to journalist Andrei Tsaplienko, this is a tank unit of the Tour of Belarusians from the 225th separate assault battalion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
18:19 Lavrov said that after Ukraine's invasion of the Kursk region, "there can be no negotiations with Kiev, the president said so." He also called rumors about secret contacts between Moscow and Kiev with the mediation of Qatar and Turkey. Lavrov believes that information about such contacts is in the development of the conference on Ukraine in Switzerland, where a decision was made to create working groups. But for Moscow, this process is unacceptable, because its only goal is "promoting an ultimatum called the Zelensky formula," the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry emphasized.
15:24 A video is being circulated on social networks showing Ukrainian soldiers raising the Ukrainian flag in Sudzha:
14:41 The Russian Defense Ministry reported attacks by Ukrainian assault groups in the direction of Olgovka, Russkoye and Cherkasskoye Porechnoye in the Kursk region. A search is also allegedly underway for sabotage groups that attempted to penetrate deep into Russian territory south of the settlements of Skrylevka and Sheptukhovka.
13:12 Zelensky reported that he had heard Syrsky's report, in particular regarding new details of the operation in the Kursk region. "We are achieving our goals. In the morning, there will be another replenishment of the exchange fund for our state," the president said.
13:03 In the Kursk direction, units of the Ground Forces are successfully carrying out assigned tasks and continue to replenish the exchange fund, "which will allow us to return our guys and girls from captivity more quickly," said the commander of the Ground Forces, Alexander Pavlyuk, and showed a video:
09:09 British drones played a key role in the Ukrainian Armed Forces' offensive in the Kursk region. In addition, Ukrainian forces used Challenger 2 tanks, The Sunday Times writes. According to the publication's sources, the country's new government has decided to more openly acknowledge the use of British military equipment by Ukrainians, including in Russia. The only weapon that Ukraine cannot yet use on Russian territory due to concerns from its allies is the long-range Storm Shadow missiles.
"We will not shy away from the idea of ​​using British weapons in Russia to defend Ukraine. We should be proud that we have given something that helps Ukraine defend itself," one of the sources told the publication. According to The Sunday Times, the authorities have decided to be more open in order to persuade allies to do more.
09:01 Special Operations Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine demonstrated their work on identifying and destroying Russian servicemen in the Kursk region. "Enemy servicemen are trying to hide in industrial zones, at equipped positions and in civilian houses. Soldiers from one of the units of the Special Operations Forces of Ukraine demonstrate part of their work on identifying and destroying enemy forces," the report says.
08:13 Z-publics write about the destruction of the third and last bridge across the Seim River in the Kursk region. About 700 sq. km may be operationally surrounded.
07:25 The American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reports that the Ukrainian Armed Forces continue to advance in the Kursk region. Thus, one of the Russian war correspondents stated on August 18 that Ukrainian forces captured Troitske (south of Korenevo and approximately 2 km from the international border) and advanced to Semenovka (north of Sudzha and approximately 24 km from the international border). The Ukrainian project DeepState reports that the Defense Forces liberated Apanasivka, Snagost, Otruba and advanced in Olhivka. ISW also writes that Russia is preparing a counteroffensive operation in the Kursk region and is forced to transfer forces there.
At the same time, ISW analysts point out that the Ukrainian invasion of Kursk Oblast, as well as Russian offensive operations in eastern Ukraine, are not in themselves decisive military operations that will help one side win the war. According to experts, both Russian and Ukrainian forces lack the capabilities to conduct individual decisive winning operations and instead must conduct several successive operations with limited operational objectives that do not achieve victory, but in aggregate can help achieve strategic goals.
04:11 Ukraine considered several options for an operation on Russian territory: a strike in the Bryansk region, a strike in the Kursk region, a combined strike in two regions at once, or even a larger scale, The Economist writes. According to the publication, Syrsky kept his plans secret, sharing them only with a small group of generals and security service officers, and communicating with Zelensky tête-à -tête. The main goal of the offensive is to distract Russian troops in the Donetsk region and create trump cards for any future negotiations.
Army intelligence learned most of the information independently, and the GUR was brought in only at a late stage of preparation for the operation. One of the publication's sources claims that the Western allies also did not know about the preparation of the operation, and when they learned about the breakthrough, they did not object. Limited communications to the level of official necessity allowed the Ukrainian Armed Forces to begin the attack before the Russians realized what was happening.
In particular, Syrsky had thrown the enemy off guard by concealing the arrival of his most experienced divisions. Reinforcements had been deployed to the forests near the Kursk border, under the pretext of protecting against a supposed Russian attack on Sumy, a week and a half before the operation began. The troops themselves began to suspect that something serious was going on in early August, when they were suddenly given equipment. They conducted exercises on mock-ups of what they later realized were Russian villages.
00:54 The Ukrainian Armed Forces' offensive in the Kursk region is only the first of several stages of the operation, said the head of the Sumy city military administration, Oleksiy Drozdenko. He noted that he took direct part in planning the operation and was part of a narrow trusted circle of insiders. "We see only part of this operation, in the future we will see several stages," Drozdenko said.
He also said that the Ukrainian Armed Forces sometimes take 100-150 prisoners of war per day, many of them conscripts who do not want to fight. In addition, Drozdenko said that hospitals in Sumy were preparing to accept many wounded after the invasion began, but there were unexpectedly few casualties. "On the first day of the operation, there were only 15 wounded. Sixty, seventy percent of them were very light, caused by bomb damage, shrapnel," he added.