Ukraine says troops making gains in Russia - as emergency declared in border region
Ukrainian forces are continuing to advance with their surprise invasion of Russia's Kursk region as a further 1km to 2km of territory being gained since the start of Wednesday, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said.
In a Telegram video where he was being briefed by his top military commander, Mr Zelenskyy also said more than 100 Russian prisoners of war were captured in the same period, as Ukraine continues with its week-old incursion of the bordering region of Kursk.
According to the commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, the Russian border town of Sudzha was fully under Ukrainian control.
"The search and destruction of the enemy in the settlement of Sudzha has been completed," he said.
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Ukraine's state television showed Ukrainian troops pulling down a Russian flag from an official building in Sudzha, a transhipment hub for Russian natural gas flowing to Europe via Ukraine.
Ukraine blindsided Moscow when it poured thousands of troops into Kursk last week, rapidly gaining ground as it launched the biggest invasion of Russian territory since the Second World War.
The Russian border region of Belgorod declared a state of emergency on Wednesday, with its governor citing continued attacks by Ukrainian forces.
"The situation in the Belgorod region continues to be extremely difficult and tense," said Vyacheslav Gladkov in a video posted on Telegram.
He said daily shelling had destroyed homes and killed and wounded civilians, adding: "Therefore, we are making a decision, starting today, to declare a regional emergency situation throughout the Belgorod region... with a subsequent appeal to the government to declare a federal emergency situation."
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How significant is Ukraine's incursion into Russia?
Earlier, Moscow claimed it began to thwart the incursion into Kursk.
It said it had destroyed 117 Ukrainian drones in Russia overnight, mostly in the Kursk, Voronezh an Belgorod and Nizhny Novgorod regions. It said missiles had also been shot down and showed Sukhoi Su-34 bombers striking Ukrainian positions in Kursk.
Russian army units - including fresh reserves, aircraft, drone teams and artillery forces - have stopped Ukrainian troops from gaining further territory near the settlements of Obshchy Kolodez, Snagost, Kauchuk and Alexeyevsky, the Russian defence ministry said.
The influx of fresh units has been confirmed, at least to some extent, after Lithuania's defence minister Laurynas Kasciunas revealed Russia is moving troops from its Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad to Kursk.
Kyiv now controls 74 settlements in Kursk, and has taken a further 15 square miles of territory in 24 hours, Mr Syrskyi said.
"Fights are ongoing along the entire front line," he added in a video posted on Mr Zelenskyy's Telegram channel.
"The situation, despite the high intensity of combat, is under control."
According to foreign ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi, Ukraine is "not interested" in holding territory in Kursk long term.
The aim of the cross-border operation is to protect Ukrainian land from long-range strikes launched from the region, he added.
"We want to protect the lives of our people," Mr Tykhyi was quoted as saying by local media.
He claimed Russia had launched more than 2,000 strikes from Kursk in recent months, using anti-aircraft missiles, artillery, mortars, drones, 255 glide bombs and more than 100 missiles.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has vowed to hit back at Ukraine with a "worthy response" and accused Kyiv's "Western masters" of helping Ukraine.
The United States says it had "nothing to do" with the surprise invasion of Russian territory.
President Joe Biden said it was "creating a real dilemma" for the Russian president.
A "generous" peace offer made by Russia to Ukraine in June is "no longer on the table", said Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia's deputy envoy to the UN.
"This is a step that Ukraine will later regret."
