By Burc Eruygur
ISTANBUL (AA) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday that Kyiv will send additional weapons to troops in the eastern Donetsk region, where Moscow continues to claim its forces are making advances.
“We have agreed that we will send additional weapons to our warriors in the Donetsk direction, from the next support packages -- more than planned,” Zelenskyy said in a video address following a meeting with Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi.
Expressing that Syrskyi has already reported several times Wednesday on the front line and Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, Zelenskyy said the advances are “going well” and that are reaching their strategic goal.
He said he held a meeting with government officials to discuss support for Ukraine’s military actions in the Kursk region, conveying it is important that Kyiv “fights by the rules” and that humanitarian needs existing in this area “must be met.”
“Our Ukrainian drones work exactly as they should. But there are things that cannot be done with drones alone, Unfortunately. We need other weapons --- missile weapons. And we continue working with our partners on long-range decisions for Ukraine,” said Zelenskyy.
He went on to say that his team prepared an algorithm for the actions it will take to obtain “strong decisions” from Kyiv’s partners, adding, “The bolder our partners' decisions are, the less Putin will be able to do.”
Last week, intensified shelling in Kursk was followed by an incursion of Ukrainian infantry, supported by tanks and armored vehicles, into the border region, particularly near the city of Sudzha, about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) from the Ukrainian border.
Authorities in Kursk have said that 28 settlements in the region are under Ukrainian control, and 12 people were killed and 121 injured since the incursion into the border region adjacent to Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region. Kyiv has claimed that it took control of 74 settlements.
Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Kyiv of carrying out “large-scale provocation” and “indiscriminate shooting,” while Zelenskyy admitted it was an "operation" by Ukraine's troops without specifying its goals.
At the same time, Russia claims daily advances since it started an offensive in Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region in May, opening a new front in the more than two-year conflict that was hitherto concentrated in the country’s east and south.
During this period, Moscow also claimed it took control of multiple settlements on other fronts, particularly those in the Donetsk region.