Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has admitted for the first time that his military is conducting a cross-border offensive inside Russia’s western Kursk region.
In a video address late on Saturday, Mr Zelensky said the Ukrainian military was pushing the war into “the territory of the invader”.
Kiev launched a surprise offensive on Tuesday, rapidly advancing more than 10km (six miles) into Russia – the deepest such foray since Moscow began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
In Ukraine, the capital Kyiv and several other areas were attacked by Russian drones and missiles early Sunday morning, local officials said.
In his speech, President Zelensky thanked Ukraine’s “fighters” and said he had discussed the operation in Russia with the country’s top military commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi.
“Ukraine is proving that it can really restore justice and ensure the necessary pressure on the aggressor,” he added.
Russia is still struggling to contain Ukraine’s advance, with more than 76,000 people evacuated from the Kursk region and an “anti-terrorist” regime imposed across three border regions.
This means that authorities in the Kursk, Belgorod and Bryansk regions can restrict the movement of people and vehicles, as well as use phone tapping and other measures.
Fighting appeared to continue into Saturday night, with Kursk Governor Aleksei Smirnov saying on Sunday morning that people had been injured in a “dangerous” Ukrainian attack.
Earlier, he reported that 13 people were injured on Saturday night when debris from a downed Ukrainian missile fell on a multi-storey building in the regional capital of Kursk.
The governors of Russia’s neighboring Voronezh and Belgorod regions also reported a Ukrainian drone attack last night. They did not mention any casualties.
In Ukraine, a 35-year-old man and his four-year-old son were killed in the Kyiv region when a rocket fragment fell on residential homes, rescue services said on Sunday.
Three others were injured, including a 13-year-old child.
Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko posted on Telegram early Sunday morning that air defense units were “active” and warned residents to stay in shelters.
Ukraine’s rare offensive into Russia began on Tuesday morning, when up to 1,000 troops, backed by tanks and armored vehicles, advanced into the Kursk region, Russia said.
Since then, the Ukrainian army is said to have seized several villages and is also threatening the town of Sudzha.
On Friday, a video emerged showing armed Ukrainian soldiers claiming to have taken control of the town, as well as a key Russian gas facility there owned by the Gazprom company.
BBC Verify has confirmed that the footage was indeed filmed from the Gazprom facility on the north-western outskirts of Sudzha, around 7km from the border with Ukraine. Separately, the unverified video claims that Ukrainian troops have taken over the entire town.
Russian military bloggers had previously claimed that the town remained in Moscow’s hands.
BBC Verify has confirmed the location of another video posted online on Friday morning. The video shows a convoy of 15 Russian vehicles damaged, burned and abandoned on a road through the town of Oktyabrskoe, about 38km (24 miles) from the Russian border.
The footage also shows Russian soldiers – some wounded, some possibly dead – lying among the vehicles.
Moscow has since sent reinforcements – including tanks and rocket launchers – to the Kursk region, claiming that Russian troops “continue to repel an attempted invasion” by Ukrainian forces.
Russia’s claim has not been independently verified.
On Friday, the UN nuclear agency called on both Russia and Ukraine to exercise “maximum restraint” as fighting neared the Kursk nuclear power plant – one of the largest facilities in Russia.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi said measures must be taken “to avoid a nuclear accident with the potential for serious radiological consequences”.
The power plant is located about 60km northeast of Sudzha.
