Ukraine moves deeper into Russia and targets airbases

Zelenskiy says incursion into Kursk and Belgorod achieving strategic goals

- Peter Beaumont, Dan Sabbagh

Ukraine's president said his country's forces were continuing to advance into Russian territory yesterday after their surprise offensive as Kyiv said it had launched a "major" drone attack on four Russian airbases.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that Ukraine's troops had advanced several kilometres in the largest attack on Russia since the second world war.

In his nightly address, he said Kyiv was achieving its "strategic goal" in the operation and repeated his appeal to western partners to allow longrange strikes on targets in Russia. "The bolder the partners' decisions, the less Putin can do," he said.

Ukraine also claimed to have shot down a Russian Su-34 jet overnight in the Kursk region, where it said it had also captured 100 Russian prisoners.

Claims of a drone strike targeting airbases appeared to be confirmed by Russia, which said it had downed 117 Ukrainian drones overnight. The targets Russia's Voronezh, Kursk, Savasleyka and Borisoglebsk airbases - are used by warplanes in glide bomb attacks on Ukraine.

Zelenskiy had previously said Ukraine "controlled" 74 Russian settlements, although it was unclear whether that meant they were fully occupied by Ukrainian troops.

Ukraine's state television showed footage of its troops pulling down a Russian flag from an official building in the town of Sudzha in the Kursk region yesterday. The report showed burnt-out Russian military columns on some roads in the area as well as Ukrainian soldiers handing out humanitarian aid to residents and taking down Russian flags from an administrative building.

"The situation still remains difficult," said Yuri Podolyaka, a Ukrainian-born pro-Russian military blogger. "The enemy still has the initiative, and so, albeit slowly, it is increasing its presence in Kursk."