War in Ukraine, now Zelensky says it explicitly: “We want to bring the conflict to Russian territory”

The President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged for the first time that Ukraine is carrying out operations to “push the war” into Russian territory. “Chief of the General Staff Sirsky has already reported several times today about the front, our actions and pushing the war into the aggressor’s territory,” Zelensky said in his evening address. “Thanks to every unit of our defense forces that makes this possible. Ukraine Proves It Really Knows How to Restore Justice and it provides exactly the kind of pressure that is needed: pressure on the aggressor,” he said.

Moscow has responded to Kiev’s operations on Russian soil so far by dropping an Odab-500 thermobaric bomb on enemy soldiers and claiming to have killed personnel, equipment and 15 foreign mercenaries in the pay of Ukraine. A warning of the military force it can command Vladimir Putinwhile the fighting continued for the fifth day in the Russian border regionswith Moscow rushing to take cover by evacuating civilians, so far over 76 thousand people.

Observers continue to question the objectives of the Ukrainian incursion: some analysts say the offensive could be designed to capture and hold territories to use as bargaining chips to ensure the liberation of the Russian-occupied regions. Such a move would, however, require a huge commitment by Ukrainian troops to counter the Russians for as long as necessary. Another possibility is that Kiev wants to force Russian forces to relieve front-line positions in Ukraine eastern and southern, to strengthen their defenses. While a third hypothesis is that Ukraine wants to capture the Kursk nuclear power plant to use it as a lever and force the Russians to withdraw from the power plant Zaporizhia.

In the meantime, the northern border is also ignited by new tensions between Kiev and Minsk: the Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko he denounced as “a provocation” the Ukrainian drones that have crossed the border and been shot down in the country’s airspace. And promising retaliation in case of new violations, the Belarusian leader has ordered to reinforce military units on the border deploying Polonez and Iskander missile systems.

Meanwhile, “in order to ensure the safety of citizens and suppress the threat of attacks”, the head of the FSB has ordered the implementation of a “special anti-terrorist regime” in the regions of Kursk, Belgorod and Bryansk, on the border with Ukraine. A measure that translates into large powers to the security forces and the army and severe restrictions for residents: limited movement, monitored phone calls, prohibited areas, checkpoints, increased security in key infrastructures. A real lockdown that highlights the extent of the crisis in the wider ‘northern front’, amid fears of an escalation also with Belarus: after the alleged incursion of Ukrainian drones, Minsk has in fact warned of the risk of a widening of the conflict, summoning the Ukrainian chargé d’affaires to present a strong protest and to threaten retaliation in the event of new incidents.