Ukraine war debate: Zelenskiy vows more ‘revenge’ on Russia as he hails Kursk operation

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was sworn in more “revenge” against Russia when Kyiv and Moscow announced the exchange of 230 prisoners Just over two weeks after Ukraine’s surprise attack on the Kursk region. Zelenskiy posted a video of himself standing in a wooded area said to be close to where Ukraine first entered Russia on August 6. “What the enemy brought to our country has now returned home,” he said, adding that Russia “will know what revenge is”. Russia and Ukraine exchanged 115 prisoners of war each after the United Arab Emirates (UAE) acted as mediator. It is the first such exchange since Ukraine launched its Kursk offensive. The Russian Defense Ministry said that Russian exchange agents were captured in the Kursk region.

Zelenskiy said on Saturday that Ukraine’s operation in Kursk was a preventive strike to stop Russian attacks in the north and to the regional city of Sumy. He told a news conference in Kyiv that the Kursk operation was difficult but he viewed its progress positively.

Ukraine says five people have been killed in a Russian strike on a residential area in the eastern town of Kostyantynivka.near the front line in the Donetsk region, on Saturday. Agence France-Presse reported that it saw the boy and his dog climb up to the body, covered by a sheet, on the side of the road, and watched as rescuers rushed to remove it. of Pokrovsk amid fears it would fall to advancing Russian forces.

Five residents were present were killed and 12 wounded in a Ukrainian attack on the town of Rakitnoye in Russia’s Belgorod region on the border with Ukraine, the region’s governor said on Sunday.. Among the injured were three children, Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram. The reports were not independently verified. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine. Gladkov said earlier that two people were injured in a drone strike in the area.

Ukraine seeks western approval to use long-range Storm Shadow missiles to destroy targets inside Russiabelieving that this would force Moscow to enter into negotiations to end the war. Senior figures in Kyiv suggested that using British and French weapons in a “demonstration attack” would signal to the Kremlin that military bases near the capital itself could be vulnerable to direct attack, reports Dan Sabbagh of Kyiv.

Five drones were shot down in the Voronezh region of southwestern Russia, on the border with Ukraine, injuring two people.said local governor Aleksandr Gusev. In the Bryansk region, local authorities did not report any injuries after the drone was intercepted. In the Kursk region, regional governor Alexei Smirnov said on Saturday that three missiles were fired overnight and four more on Saturday morning.

Ukraine’s military intelligence service said it blew up a warehouse storing 5,000 tons of ammunition in the Voronezh district of Ostrogozhsky district.. The Astra news agency published videos showing an explosion at a weapons depot after a drone strike. The videos were not independently verified. The governor of Voronezh said a state of emergency was declared in Ostrogozhsk district after the drone attacks, when 200 people were displaced from one city.

Ukraine marks its 33rd independence day, setting aside the usual fireworks, parades and concerts to remember the thousands of civilians and soldiers killed in the war. and Russia. Social media was flooded with messages of gratitude and support as Ukrainians greeted each other from across the country and thanked the soldiers on the front lines. “Independence is the peace we find when we lose our people,” Zelenskiy told the public in a video posted on Telegram. Independence descends into a defensive position during an air attack, only to endure and wake up again and again to tell the enemy: ‘You will achieve nothing.’ Others posed for pictures in front of the blue and yellow national flag and an “I Love Ukraine” sign placed next to a makeshift memorial to fallen soldiers.

Zelenskiy promoted his army chief to four-star generalhis office said on Saturday, a few weeks after Kyiv entered Kursk. General Oleksander Syrskyi, 59, who held the rank of colonel general, was promoted to general, said a decree published on the president’s website. Syrskyi, born in 1965 in Russia’s Vladimir region, has lived in Ukraine since the 1980s.