Ukraine not interested in occupying Russian territory after incursion, Kyiv says
13 August 2024, 18:22 | Updated: 13 August 2024, 18:29
Ukraine is not interested in occupying Russia's Kursk region despite taking control of around 1,000 square kilometres of the territory, according to Kyiv's Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
Mr Tykhyi said the cross-border operation launched by Kyiv on 6 August was instead aimed at protecting Ukrainian land from long-range strikes launched from Kursk.
Ukrainian forces have advanced up to 18 miles (30km) inside Russia making this the deepest incursion since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Around 121,000 people have been evacuated from the Kursk region with another 59,000 told to leave.
Some 11,000 people were also evacuated from the Krasnoyaruzhsky district in Russia's Belgorod region with just 500 residents remaining.
Mr Tykhyi reportedly told local media: "Ukraine is not interested in taking the territory of the Kursk region, but we want to protect the lives of our people."
He said that Russia had launched more than 2,000 strikes from the Kursk region in recent months using anti-aircraft missiles, barrel artillery, mortars, drones, 255 glide bombs and more than 100 missiles.
He said "the purpose of this operation is to preserve the lives of our children, to protect the territory of Ukraine from Russian strikes".
Ukraine's Western partners have said the country has the right to defend itself, including by attacking across the border.
Addressing the invasion, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said: "Russia brought war to others, now it’s coming home.
"Ukraine has always wanted only peace, and we will certainly ensure peace.”
Meanwhike, Russian President Vladmir Putin has vowed to "kick the enemy out of our territory" and said the incursion would not distract from Russia's own war aims in Ukraine, which it invaded two and a half years ago.
Matthew Savill, military sciences director at the Royal United Services Institute, said Russia has been "severely embarrassed".
"The loss of territory and evacuation of civilians will play poorly back in Russia as evidence they 'can't defend themselves'," he added.
Putin has said the Kursk offensive appeared to reflect Kyiv's attempt to gain a better negotiating position in possible future talks to end the war.
"It's obvious that the enemy will keep trying to destabilise the situation in the border zone to try to destabilise the domestic political situation in our country," he added.
Putin said Ukraine had failed in its aim to destabilise Russia though and that Moscow's military must "dislodge" Ukrainian troops from border regions.
He previously described the move by Kyiv as a "large-scale provocation" that involved the "indiscriminate shelling of civilian buildings, residential houses and ambulances."
One of Putin’s governors accused Ukraine of chemical weapon use during the invasion - though it is unclear if he has provided any evidence.
Both countries have accused one another and reported allegations of use of chemical weapons during the war.
Zelenskyy spoke on the invasion for the first time over the weekend, saying that Russia deserved a "fair" response following its launch of nearly 2,000 cross-border strikes at Ukraine's Sumy region in recent months.
