Ukraine updates: Kursk incursion aimed to start talks — Kyiv

Yevheniia Kravchuk, a Ukrainian lawmaker belonging to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's Servant of the People Party, told DW that Ukraine's incursion into Russian territory could help Kyiv achieve a "strong position on the battlefield."

Ukrainian forces have been advancing in the Russian border region of Kursk since a surprise incursion on August 6.

Kravchuk argued that Ukraine "should have a strong position on the battlefield" if it comes to the negotiating table with Russia, adding that territory in Kursk could be part of negotiations.

Kravchuk said that Ukrainian authorities had received intelligence that showed that Russian forces were planning to attack Ukraine's northeastern Sumy region from Kursk.

"So basically the operation of our army made possible [keeping] our territory intact, so this is part of self-defense," she said.

"We do not need this territory for our country, it is just part of our military operation to ensure that our regions will not be shelled from the Kursk region," she said, adding that Russian forces had shelled Sumy "more than 2,000 times" since the beginning of summer.

Speaking of the humanitarian situation in the Kursk region, Kravchuk said: "We are ready to open humanitarian corridors for those who are ready to evacuate to Russian territory [and] also to seek shelter in [Ukraine's] Sumy region."

"Some people in Kursk have relatives in the Sumy region," she stressed, adding that some Kursk residents are originally from Ukraine.

Asked when a humanitarian corridor could be established, Kravchuk said that this would depend on whether Russian authorities want this corridor. 

Kravchuk said that Ukraine's incursion into Kursk was "significant" because "Ukraine gained more territory than Russia occupied during 2024 in total."

In terms of territory changing hands, the vast majority of the movement in the full-scale conflict that Russia launched in 2022 took place in that first year. 

She said that she hoped Kyiv could exchange prisoners of war captured in Kursk for Ukrainian prisoners of war held by Russian forces.

Russia's Foreign Ministry has summoned Italy's ambassador in Moscow over what it said was "illegal border crossing" by a team of journalists from Italian state broadcaster RAI.

The reporters produced a TV report from the town of Sudzha in the Russian region of Kursk. The town was seized by Ukraine at the start of its incursion into Russia last week.

"A strong protest was expressed to the Ambassador in connection with the actions of the film crew of Italian state television and radio company RAI, which illegally entered the territory of the Russian Federation," the Foreign Ministry's statement said.

The Italian journalists appeared to be working under Ukrainian military escort when they entered Sudzha and filmed footage for their report.

The head of Ukraine's military said Kyiv's forces were advancing between one and three kilometers in some parts of Russia's Kursk region.

"The troops of the offensive group continue to fight and have advanced in some areas from one to three kilometers towards the enemy," General Oleksandr Syrskyi told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a video posted on social media.

Ukraine claims to have taken control of 82 settlements in the Kursk region since launching a surprise cross-border offensive 10 days ago.

Syrskyi said that fighting continued along the entire front line and that he hoped to take "many prisoners" from a battle ongoing in the village of Mala Loknya, about 13 kilometers (8 miles) from the Ukrainian border.

"In general, the situation is under control, everything is carried out following the plan," Syrskyi said.

He added that intense fighting continued in Ukraine's front line in the east, in particular in Toretsk and Pokrovsk.

The Freedom of Russia Legion volunteer corps has called for Russian soldiers to switch sides or surrender to Ukraine's armed forces.

The legion is a pro-Kyiv paramilitary unit made up of Russian citizens.

"Your political instructors, sitting in a warm back room, say you should blow yourselves up with a grenade rather than be taken prisoner," the unit said in a post on Telegram.

It encouraged Russian soldiers help "fight for a normal future for Russia."

"We are ready to communicate with anyone who expresses a desire to take up arms against the Kremlin," it said.

Ukrainian forces have been advancing in the Russian border region of Kursk since a surprise incursion on August 6.

A strike on a supermarket in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk killed at least two people and injured seven, Russia's TASS state news agency cited pro-Moscow regional authorities as saying.

Russia's RIA state news agency posted a video showing thick clouds of smoke bellowing out of a burnt down building.

The Moscow-backed leader of the Donetsk region, Denis Pushilin, said in a post on Telegram that the Ukrainian army was behind the attack. He said that an area of over 10,000 square meters (107,639 square feet) was in flames and that a hospital had also been hit.

The information could not be independently verified.

Parts of the Donetsk region, including the regional capital of the same name, have been controlled by pro-Russian forces since 2014. Russia claimed to have annexed the entire region, including areas not held by its forces, in September 2022.

Mick Ryan, retired Australian Army general, has told DW Ukraine's incursion into Russia's Kursk region has likely caused a dramatic shift in the Russia-Ukraine war. By sending troops into Kursk, Ukraine is trying to break the war's status quo and move events in its favor.

Watch the full interview here:

Russia said it thwarted an attack from 12 US-built ATACMS missiles launched by Ukraine on the Crimea bridge, which was built at the behest of President Vladimir Putin after Moscow annexed the peninsula in 2014.

"Air defenses were used last night to deflect a group strike by 12 ATACMS missiles made in the US on the Crimean bridge. All the missiles were destroyed," Moscow's Defense Ministry said in a statement on Friday.

The bridge opened in 2018 and connects Kerch in Crimea with southern Russia's Krasnodar region.

Ukraine has attempted multiple attacks on the bridge since Moscow began its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Russian authorities have declared an association of Russian politicians in exile who oppose Moscow's war in Ukraine to be an "undesirable organization."

Members of the "Deputies of Peaceful Russia" group are accused of taking part in events with an "anti-Russian orientation" in Germany, the General Prosecutor's Office said, according to Russian media.

"They spread misleading information about the activities of Russian state agencies and support extremist organizations," the statement added.

The nongovernmental organization was founded in October 2023 and held its first congress in Berlin. Its members include 74 regional and municipal Russian lawmakers and representatives, many of whom are living in exile.

"All participants in the association consider [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's regime to be criminal, condemn Russia's military aggression against Ukraine and advocate Russia's democratic path and the decentralization of power," the group states on its website.

Under Russian law, which has been steadily tightened by the State Duma since 2015, organizations are designated "undesirable" if their activities are considered to "pose a threat to the foundations of the constitutional order, defense, or security of the state."

Croatia's Defense Minister Ivan Anusic announced late on Thursday that the Balkan country would bring back the military draft from January 1, 2025.

The decision, which has sparked public protests, was taken in light of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine as well as the build-up of military forces in its neighbors with which it fought a brutal war in the 1990s.

"We increased the salaries of soldiers, non-commissioned officers and officers, their material rights not only through personal income but also through daily wages and everything they are entitled to," the minister told the Croatian broadcaster RTL on Thursday.

"The modernization and equipment of the Armed Forces is proceeding as planned and in accordance with the agreement with our allies and the NATO leadership," he added.

Croatia ended its military conscription in 2008, but is now following in the footsteps of other European countries such as Latvia that reintroduced the draft last year.

Serbia is also considering introducing such a measure.

The Ukrainian military has urged civilians in the eastern town of Pokrovsk to speedily evacuate as Russian troops encircle the town "at a fast pace."

"With every passing day there is less and less time to collect personal belongings and leave for safer regions," Ukrainian authorities wrote on Telegram.

The warning came as Russia attacks continued across the eastern Donbas region, with Ukraine's General staff registering 144 clashes over the past 24 hours.

The Ukrainian military reported heavy fighting centered not only around Pokrovsk, but also Toretsk and Kurakhove, all towns that lie in Donetsk oblast.

Ukraine said it had repelled dozens of Russian attacks backed by air strikes and artillery,

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said on Friday that Ukraine's recent surprise cross-border incursion into the Russian region of Kursk was necessary to convince Moscow to start "fair" peace talks.

"We need to inflict significant tactical defeats on Russia," Podolyak wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

"In the Kursk region, we clearly see how the military tool is objectively used to convince the Russian Federation to enter into a fair negotiation process."

Podolyak said that Ukraine had no intention of holding onto Russian territory and that it was only fighting a defensive war.

But he said there was a need to inflict tactical defeats on Russia to coerce them to start negotiating an end to the war.

The presence of Ukrainian troops within Russia may impact public opinion, Podolyak suggested, since for many in Russia the war had not been something that directly affected them.

ab/rm (Reuters, AFP, dpa, AP)