Zelensky: Kursk invasion was aimed at creating a Russian-Ukrainian ‘buffer zone’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that Ukraine’s surprise invasion of Russia’s Kursk region was aimed at creating a “buffer zone” between the two countries and further complicating Moscow’s cross-border offensive.

“Our main task now in defensive operations in general is to destroy as much of Russia’s war potential as possible and to carry out maximum offensive countermeasures,” Zelensky said in his nightly address, his first public acknowledgment of the true intentions of the offensive.

“This includes the creation of a buffer zone on the territory of the aggressor – our operation in the Kursk region,” Zelensky added.

Ukrainian forces destroyed one bridge in the area this week and struck a second in an attempt to disrupt Russian supply lines. Pro-Kremlin war bloggers have since acknowledged that the first strike, which targeted a bridge over the Seim River near the village of Glushkovo in Russia, was successful. The location and effectiveness of the second attack had not been determined as of Sunday morning.

Putin intervenes as Ukrainian forces advance along ‘idle front’ in border security operation

The inset photo shows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy above the site of a successful strike on a Russian bridge that serves as a key supply route for troops in the country’s Kursk region. (Ukrainian Presidency/Distribution/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

The impact of the alleged strikes on Russian infrastructure further complicates a situation that already put Moscow on the defensive, forcing it to reassess its strategy along Ukraine’s northeastern border, an area that had been largely dismissed as unimportant to the conflict just months after it began in 2022.

Ukrainian operation in the Kursk region [has forced] “This is the critical point in the decision-making process between the Kremlin and the Russian military leadership about whether the 1,000-kilometer international border with northeastern Ukraine should be viewed as a legitimate front line that Russia should defend,” George Barros of the Institute for the Study of War told Fox News Digital.

This infographic was created in Ankara, Turkey, on August 8, 2024. On August 6, the Ukrainian military launched a large-scale offensive into the southern Kursk region of Russia, creating a new front in the conflict. (Murat Usubali/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

“Russia has spent significant resources to build fortifications along the international border area, but has not allocated the necessary manpower,” Barros noted. [matériel] “To provide security and defense for those fortifications to a great extent.”

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Ukraine has claimed control of about 400 square miles of Russian territory since launching the operation on August 6.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.