Reuters. Ukraine said on Tuesday (August 13) its forces had taken control of 74 settlements in Russia's southern Kursk region and that its major cross-border incursion had advanced 1-3 kilometres over the last 24 hours.
Briefing President Volodymyr Zelenskiy by video link, army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said Kyiv's military had seized 40 square kilometres (15 square miles) of new territory over the past 24 hours.
Zelenskiy thanked his troops for taking new Russian prisoners of war.
"Thank you for filling up our prisoners' exchange stock, this is important so that we can exchange them for our guys, our soldiers," Zelenskiy said.
Ukraine blindsided Moscow by pouring thousands of troops into the western Russian region of Kursk last week in a surprise operation that Kyiv says has seen its forces take 1,000 sq km of land, its largest gains since 2022.
Air defense systems downed four tactical missiles and 117 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the skies over Russian regions last night, Russia’s Defense Ministry said.
"Overnight, air defense forces on duty destroyed four tactical missiles and 117 fixed-wing UAVs as Kiev attempted to conduct a terrorist attack on facilities on Russian soil using unmanned aerial vehicles and Tochka-U tactical missiles," the ministry said.
As many as 37 UAVs and four tactical missiles were shot down over the Kursk Region, another 37 drones were downed over the Voronezh Region, 17 UAVs over the Belgorod Region, 11 over the Nizhny Novgorod Region, nine over the Volgograd Region, three over the Bryansk Region, two over the Oryol Region and one over the Rostov Region, the ministry specified.
