Ukraine claims new advances in Russia, Belgorod declares state of emergency
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00:00And we start in Ukraine with the country's surprise assault into Russian territory.
00:05It's been over a week since the offensive into the Kursk region began,
00:10and today Ukraine has been pounding the area with missiles and with drones. The army is also
00:17expanding its attacks beyond Kursk to the neighbouring Russian region of Belgorod,
00:23where the governor there has declared a state of emergency.
00:28To tell us a bit more, our foreign editor Ketivan Kordoshstani with me now. And Ketivan,
00:32what is your understanding, first of all, as to what is happening on the ground at the moment?
00:36Well, there's really a sense that the Ukrainians want to attack several areas at once and sort of
00:42try to maybe not overwhelm, but give a sense that they are pretty much everywhere along that border.
00:50Of course, the focus right now is the Kursk region, and there's a sort of expansion of that
00:56week-long incursion. According to the Ukrainians, they've seized more than 1,000 square kilometres
01:03during that week. That's about what Russia has seized in the past year. They've also said that
01:10they've secured control of more than 70 settlements, and they've gone at least about
01:1625 kilometres deep within Russian territory, if not more. But they haven't done just Kursk.
01:25They've now also started pounding, as we see, the region of Belgorod with a barrage of missiles,
01:33of drones. And you said it, the governor has now declared the state of emergency, with
01:38thousands of people fleeing the area, the closest area to the border. Ukraine also,
01:46according to the Russians, sending a barrage of drones to the Voronezh region. So you have
01:52the Kursk region, south of Belgorod, and then the Voronezh region actually borders both of
01:59those regions, as well as a little part of Ukraine. And there, Russia claims that it destroyed at
02:05least 37 of those drones, but didn't say how many others actually got through. So there's a sense
02:12that the Ukrainians are really bringing the war to Russia, and not just focusing on one little
02:19area, but trying to expand the areas where they are being a problem for the Russians.
02:26Well, let's talk about Ukraine's strategy, though, because a bit earlier on this week,
02:30the Ukrainian foreign ministry said it had no intention of holding on to those areas in Russia
02:37that it's taken now. So why is the army doing this?
02:40Well, it's still a little bit unclear, and there seem to be several reasons why they would do that.
02:46And as you said, the official line is that this is not about taking control and seizing and
02:53occupying Russian territory. It's about defending themselves, because a lot of the incoming fire
03:00from Russia has been coming also from that Kursk region. So they want to sort of clear that area
03:06to prevent that fire from coming into Ukraine. It also, in a way, even if it's minimal, forces
03:15at least some Russian forces to relocate to that area to defend Russian territory. And that means
03:23that they're being pulled out of some of the Ukrainian territory where they were positioned.
03:29So that means that it alleviates a little bit of the pressure on the front line for the Ukrainian
03:37soldiers. It also improves Kyiv's position strategically and shifts a little bit the
03:42narrative of this war, because over the past few months, there's basically been no gains for the
03:48Ukrainians, no successes for the Ukrainians. It's all been a slow but very steady gain for the
03:55Russian army in Ukrainian territory. And it also sort of breaks this impression that maybe the
04:02Russians have, that the war is happening in Ukraine, not necessarily on their soil. But when
04:08you're seeing 100,000 people fleeing from their homes deep into Russian territory, it gives the
04:14sense that the Russians might not be able to control their border as much. What happens next
04:20is going to be hard to determine. It's unlikely that the Ukrainians have the manpower and the
04:28logistics to be able to hold on to their territory. So that's why maybe they're saying we are not
04:33going to occupy, because they know they can't really do that. Also, one of the reasons why they
04:38managed to do that is the element of surprise. Now there's no longer that surprise. But whatever
04:44happens, if they pull back soon, or on the longer term, what they have achieved is shown that there
04:51is a fragility in Russian forces, in Russian intelligence, and that they managed to break
04:58through. And that is at least a very big boost to the morale of Ukrainian forces.
05:03Ketivan Gordostany, thanks very much indeed.