Ukraine claims to control 1,000sq km of Russian territory

Ukraine’s top commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi on Monday stated that Kyiv’s forces control 1,000 sq km of Russian territory as they press their biggest cross-border incursion in two-and-a-half years of full-scale war.
Syrskyi added that Ukraine continued to conduct an offensive operation in the Kursk region seven days after its surprise attack began on Tuesday.
A growing number of people have been evacuated from the western Russian region for their safety, with a further 59,000 told to leave.
The local governor said some 28 villages in the area had fallen to Ukrainian forces and that 12 civilians had been killed.
The offensive is said to have boosted morale on the Ukrainian side, but analysts say the strategy brings fresh dangers to Ukraine as Moscow might be so angered by this incursion and could redouble its own attacks on Ukraine’s civilian population and infrastructure.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had brought war to others and now it was coming back to Russia while Russian leader Vladimir Putin described the offensive as a major provocation and ordered Russian forces to to kick the enemy out of the territory.