Ukraine strengthens positions in Kursk as Russia advances in Donetsk

KYIV, Ukraine – Ukrainian troops are consolidating their positions in the southern Russian region of Kursk, President Volodomyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday, as Moscow’s forces advanced in eastern Ukraine.

“The operation is unfolding exactly as we expected,” said Zelenskyy in Kyiv, almost two weeks after Ukrainian forces launched a surprise cross-border offensive.

“Now, we are strengthening our positions,” he added.

Ukraine is believed to be in control of dozens of villages and towns in Kursk, and it has also been capturing Russian prisoners of war, hoping to exchange them for Ukrainian soldiers and civilians held in Russia.

While the Defense Ministry in Moscow stated it had repelled further Ukrainian attacks on Sunday, Russian military bloggers confirmed Ukraine was consolidating its positions and said it is bringing further equipment over the border.

Kyiv’s unprecedented advance into Russia comes more than two years since Moscow’s full-scale invasion, which was launched in February 2022.

Earlier on Sunday, the Ukrainian air force reported the destruction of a second bridge over the Seim River, threatening to encircle Russian troops in Kursk.

Air force commander Mykola Oleshchuk published a video of the hit on a bridge near the village of Zvannoe, north-west of Glushkovo, where another bridge was destroyed on Friday.

“The air force is taking logistic options away from the enemy with precision strikes, which will have a considerable impact on combat operations,” Oleshchuk said.

According to Russian military bloggers, only one bridge remains in the Glushkovo area for supplying Russian troops. The bridge is near the village of Karyzh, which lies 6 kilometers west of Zvannoe.

Military observer Jan Matveyev said in a video that the position of Russian troops in the area was deteriorating.

“If the Russian soldiers do not withdraw, they will be surrounded. If they do withdraw, they will leave a large area unprotected,” he said.

Russia has acknowledged the destruction of the Glushkovo bridge. According to media reports, more than 30 settlements have been cut off as a result, with their residents brought to safety.

The Russian Foreign Ministry claimed that the bridge was destroyed using NATO-supplied weapons.

Russia claims advance in Donetsk

Amid the fighting in Kursk, Russia said its forces were advancing in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk on Sunday.

The Defense Ministry in Moscow said its soldiers have taken the village of Svyrydonivka in Pokrovsk district, which has seen heavy fighting in recent days.

The Ukrainian mapping project DeepState also reported Russian advances, including in the town of Mykolaivka in Kramatorsk district.

Kyiv, meanhwile, said it had repelled attacks near Pokrovsk and Toretsk.

Authorities also reported further air attacks across Ukraine and southern Russia.

A Ukrainian commander said Kyiv’s air defenses successfully repelled an overnight attack from what were believed to be Iskander-K cruise missiles, with no reports of injuries or damage.

Vassili Golubev, the governor of Russia’s Rostov region on the border with Ukraine, reported that parts of an intercepted drone had fallen on a fuel depot, causing a fire in a diesel tank.

Rostov lies directly to the east of Ukraine and came under repeated drone attack overnight. An oil storage depot in the region was severely damaged at the start of the month.

Further north, Kursk Governor Alexei Smirnov reported near-constant air-raid alarms. Repair crews were in action following damage to energy infrastructure, he said.

Belarus deploys more troops on Ukraine border

In further developments, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Sunday said he has deployed further troops to the country’s border with Ukraine.

Kyiv had stationed up to 120,000 soldiers on its side of the border, forcing him to respond, Lukashenko told the Russian Rossiya television channel.

“In view of this aggressive policy, we have stationed our military along the entire border, as would be the case in the event of war,” Lukashenko asserted.

In addition to regular forces, Belarus has also deployed special units along the border.

Lukashenko said the extra Ukrainian deployment may have come in reaction to the stationing of Russian troops in Belarus for Independence Day celebrations in Minsk on July 3.

“As a result, I had to move almost a third of the army to reinforce the existing forces,” he said.

Lukashenko, sometimes described as Europe’s last dictator, is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

At the beginning of the war in Ukraine in February 2022, Lukashenko allowed Russian troops to invade northern Ukraine via Belarus.

Moscow rejects secret negotiations report

Separately on Sunday, Moscow rejected a report by the Washington Post newspaper about planned secret negotiations for a partial ceasefire.

“There were and are no direct or indirect negotiations between Russia and the Kyiv regime on the security of critical civilian infrastructure,” said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, in response to a report that the Ukrainian offensive in the Kursk region thwarted plans for such secret talks.

“Nobody foiled anything, because there was nothing that could have been foiled,” said Zakharova.

The report said the talks were planned in Qatar, with the aim of halting attacks, at least against energy infrastructure.

The only contacts are between mediators on a humanitarian level, particularly for the exchange of prisoners, said Zakharova.

She said Russia had also handed over children wanted by Ukrainians to their relatives via intermediaries.