Kyiv:    Ukraine’s top military official revealed on Monday that Ukrainian forces now control about 1,000 square kilometers of Russia’s Kursk region. This announcement comes following Ukraine’s largest cross-border assault in nearly 2.5 years of conflict.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy shared a video of Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander of Ukraine’s armed forces, providing an update on the operation. Syrskyi confirmed that the offensive is ongoing and that Ukrainian troops have made significant territorial gains in Kursk.

In response to the situation, Zelenskiy has directed officials to develop a “humanitarian plan” for the impacted region. Alexei Smirnov, the acting governor of Kursk, reported that Ukrainian forces have captured 28 settlements, with their advance extending roughly 12 kilometers deep and 40 kilometers wide.

The Ukrainian leader also instructed the defense ministry and diplomats to identify actions required to gain Western support for the use of long-range weaponry against Russian positions. Defense Minister Rustem Umerov has also requested France to lift its ban on Western strikes within Russia during talks with his French counterpart, Sebastien Lecornu.