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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has acknowledged for the first time that his military is conducting a cross-border offensive inside Russia’s western Kursk region.<\/p>\n
In his video address late on Saturday, Mr Zelensky said Ukraine’s military was pushing the war onto “the aggressor’s territory”.<\/p>\n
Kyiv launched its surprise attack on Tuesday, rapidly advancing more than 10km (six miles) inside Russia – the deepest raid since Moscow began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.<\/p>\n
In Ukraine, the capital Kyiv and several other regions came under a Russian drone and missile attack in the early hours of Sunday, local officials said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
In his address, President Zelensky thanked Ukraine’s “warriors”, and said he had discussed the operation in Russia with the country’s top military commander Oleksandr Syrskyi.<\/p>\n
“Ukraine is proving that it can indeed restore justice and ensure the necessary pressure on the aggressor,” he added.<\/p>\n
Russia has so far struggled to halt the Ukrainian advance, with more than 76,000 people evacuated from the Kursk region and a “counter-terror” regime imposed across three border areas. <\/p>\n
This means authorities in Kursk, Belgorod and Bryansk regions can restrict the movement of people and vehicles and use phone tapping among other measures.<\/p>\n
The fighting appeared to be ongoing on Saturday night, with Kursk Governor Aleksei Smirnov saying early on Sunday that there were injured people in a “treacherous” Ukrainian attack. <\/p>\n
He earlier reported that 13 people were injured late on Saturday when the wreckage of a downed Ukrainian missile fell on a multi-storey building in the regional capital Kursk.<\/p>\n
The governors of Russia’s neighbouring Voronezh and Belgorod regions also reported a Ukrainian drone attack overnight. They did not mention any injuries.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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 houses, emergency services said on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Three more were wounded, including a 13-year-old child.<\/p>\n
Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko posted on Telegram early on Sunday morning that air defence units were “operating” and warned civilians to stay in shelters.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Ukraine’s rare incursion into Russia began on Tuesday morning, when up to 1,000 troops, supported by tanks and armoured vehicles, entered the Kursk region, Russia said. <\/p>\n
The Ukrainians have since reportedly seized a number of villages, and are also threatening the regional town of Sudzha.<\/p>\n
On Friday, a video emerged showing armed Ukrainian soldiers who claimed to have control over the town, as well as a key Russian gas facility there owned by the Gazprom company.<\/p>\n
BBC Verify has confirmed that the footage was indeed from the Gazprom facility on the north-western outskirts of Sudzha, about 7km from the border with Ukraine. The video alone does not verify the claim that Ukrainian troops have taken the whole town.<\/p>\n
Russian military bloggers earlier claimed that the town was still in Moscow’s hands.<\/p>\n
BBC Verify confirmed the location of another video posted online on Friday morning. It shows a 15-vehicle Russian convoy damaged, burned and abandoned on a road through the town of Oktyabrskoe, roughly 38km from the border on the Russian side.<\/p>\n
The footage also shows Russian soldiers – some injured, some possibly dead – among the vehicles.<\/p>\n
Moscow has since sent reinforcements – including tanks and rocket-launcher systems – to the Kursk region, saying that Russian troops were “continuing to repel the attempted invasion” of Ukrainian forces.<\/p>\n
The Russian claim has not been independently verified.<\/p>\n
On Friday, the UN nuclear agency urged both Russia and Ukraine to “exercise maximum restraint” as the fighting was edging closer to the Kursk nuclear power plant – one of the biggest such facilities in Russia.<\/p>\n
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi said measures must be taken \u201cto avoid a nuclear accident with the potential for serious radiological consequences\u201d.<\/p>\n
The power plant is located about 60km north-east of Sudzha.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n