Ukraine updates: Kyiv says still advancing in Kursk

The United Nations has asked Moscow to allow its officials to access the regions affected by Ukraine's recent cross-border incursion.

A spokesperson for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights told the French news agency AFP that the request had been made on Wednesday.

"I can confirm that the UN Human Rights Office has sent a request to the Russian authorities to facilitate access by the Office to areas of the Russian Federation affected by the hostilities, including Belgorod, Bryansk, and Kursk regions, further to our human rights monitoring and assessment mandate," Liz Throssell said.

The UN has made similar requests to Russia to gain access to territories within Russia as well as those under Russian occupation in Ukraine, but these have never been granted.

A day after it was revealed that a Ukrainian national was the likely ringleader of a 2022 attack on the Nord Stream Russian-European gas pipelines, Kyiv has denied advanced knowledge of the sabotage.

"Such an act can only be carried out with extensive technical and financial resources... And who possessed all this at the time of the bombing? Only Russia," presidental adviser Mykhailo Podolyak told Reuters news agency.

The main suspect, Volodymyr Z., was believed to be living in Poland until an arrest warrant was issued. He then fled to Ukraine. Polish authorities have accused Germany, who issued the warrant, of not properly registering it and thus not giving Poland the information it needed to make the arrest in time.

A Russian commander said on Thursday that Ukraine does not have full control of the town of Suzhda in the Russian region of Kursk that has become a new hotspot in the two-and-a-half-year-old conflict.

Apti Alaudinov, the leader of Chechnya's Akhmat Special Forces, wrote on Telegram that Russian forces were operating in the town, countering the Ukrainian claim that it had full control.

The situation on the ground could not be independently verified.

Suzhda is home to a facility that acts as the single point of access for Russian gas heading into Europe.

Ukrainian forces were able to gain a foothold in Russia's Kursk region with a small number of troops accompanied by tanks. The incident marks the first time Ukrainian ground forces have gone on the offensive inside of Russian territory.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustam Umerov had a "productive conversation" with his US counterpart Lloyd Austin about his country's defense needs, according to a statement he posted on social media on Thursday.

"I informed [Austin] about current situation at front and priority needs for our Defence Forces," he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

"I am grateful to Secretary Austin and American people for their continuous and comprehensive support since the beginning of Russian full-scale invasion," he added.

The US has provided Ukraine with more than $55 billion (€50 billion) in military aid since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Ukraine has said that its troops have taken more ground, captured more Russian prisoners and destroyed a bomber in attacks on military airfields as their cross-border advance into Russia's Kursk region enters its second week. 

In a video published on President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's Telegram channel, the commander of the Ukrainian military, General Oleksandr Syrskyi, said that assault troops advanced 1 to 2 kilometers (about a mile) further into areas of Kursk on Wednesday. 

He added that Ukrainian troops also captured more than 100 Russian soldiers.

Ukraine's forces destroyed a Russian Su-34 jet used to launch glide bombs at Ukrainian border posts and cities, Syrskyi said.

Meanwhile, Russian authorities in Kursk region have asked people in the region's Glushkov district to evacuate, acting governor Alexei Smirnov said late Wednesday. The district, which has a population of over 20,000, directly borders Ukraine. 

dvv/rm (AP, Reuters)