Ukraine updates: Zelenskyy seeks Kursk 'buffer zone'

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday the military incursion into Russia's Kursk region aims to create a "buffer zone" to prevent further Russian attacks.

Zelenskyy also praised Ukrainian troops for their "operations in the Kursk region" while lamenting the speed of supplies from Kyiv's Western allies.

In his nightly address, Zelenskyy said: "In every direction, our troops are doing an outstanding job."

But the Ukrainian president took aim at the US, the UK and France, over a lack of support.

"There are no holidays in war," Zelenskyy continued. "We need decisions — we need timely logistics for the promised aid packages. I’m specifically addressing the United States, the United Kingdom, and France. Additionally, important weeks of diplomatic work lie ahead, involving various partners. Europe, America, the Global South."

Moscow has denied a report that Ukraine's attack on Russia's Kursk region had derailed indirect talks with Kyiv.

The Washington Post reported Saturday that the two sides were set to send delegations to Qatar this month to negotiate a landmark agreement halting strikes on energy and power infrastructure.

The Post said the deal would have amounted to a partial cease-fire and that video talks had been scheduled for August 22.

The newspaper said the talks were derailed due to Ukraine's attack on Russian sovereign territory.

Responding to the report, Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for Russia's foreign ministry, said: "No one broke anything off because there was nothing to break off."

"There have been no direct or indirect negotiations between Russia and the Kyiv regime on the safety of civilian critical infrastructure facilities."

"There is nothing to talk about with people who unleash such things," Zakharova said, referring to the Kursk incursion.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin began a two-day state visit to Azerbaijan, news agencies in Moscow reported, his first in six years.

Russian television broadcast images of the president's plane as it arrived in the Azeri capital, Baku.

Putin is due to hold talks with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev on bilateral relations and "international and regional problems", the Kremlin said.

Earlier, the Kremlin said they would also discuss "the question of settling (the conflict) between Azerbaijan and Armenia."

Azerbaijan is a major producer of natural gas, which several European countries are now buying after cutting their reliance on Russian deliveries after the start of the conflict in Ukraine in February 2022.

Earlier this year, the EU proposed replacing Russian gas that transits through pipelines in Ukraine with supplies from Azerbaijan, which currently arrive through pipelines in southern Europe.

Kyiv's transit deal with Moscow allowing Russian gas to flow through its pipelines is due to expire at the end of the year.

Azerbaijan will also host the United Nations' COP29 climate conference in November.   

Russia's Defense Ministry says Moscow's troops have captured — in the Kremlin's parlance, "liberated" — another front-line village in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region.

The village, Svyrydonivka, is some 15 km (9 miles) from the city of Pokrovsk, a Ukrainian-held logistics hub that has been one of Moscow's key targets in the war for months.

The capture of Svyrydonivka comes as Russian troops are advancing fast on Pokrovsk, with officials there on Friday urging civilians to leave as quickly as possible.

The city lies on a road that is key to supplying troops and towns across the eastern front.

Ukraine's air force says a second bridge over the Seim River in Russia's Kursk region has suffered major damage in a strike by its forces.

The report of the hit on a bridge near the village of Zvannoe comes two days after the destruction of a bridge in Glushkovo to the southeast.

Air force commander Mykola Oleshchuk published a video clip purporting to show the hit on the Zvannoe bridge, saying, "The air force is taking logistic options away from the enemy with precision strikes, which will have a considerable impact on combat operations."

Russian military bloggers say only one bridge now remains in the Glushkovo area for supplying Russian troops. 

The Russian Foreign Ministry claims that the Glushkovo bridge was destroyed using
weapons supplied by NATO.
 

Moscow ally North Korea has called Kyiv's almost two-week-long offensive in Russia's Kursk region "an unforgivable act of aggression and terror," according to the state-run news agency KCNA.

Describing the Kyiv government as a "puppet regime under the control and support of the United States and the West," KCNA said the incursion was bringing the situation to the brink of World War Three.

South Korea, Ukraine and the United States have accused North Korea of supplying military hardware, including missiles, to Russia for use in its war against Ukraine. North Korea and Russia have denied the allegations.

In June, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a pact in Pyongyang on "comprehensive strategic partnership"that included a mutual defense agreement.

Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko has said that his country has stationed troops along its entire border to Ukraine in response to what he claimed was Kyiv's deployment of 120,000 troops on its side.

"Seeing their aggressive policy, we have introduced there and placed in certain points — in case of war, they would be defense — our military along the entire border," state news agency Belta cited Lukashenko as saying in an interview with Russian state television.

He produced no evidence to back his claim of the Ukrainian deployment, which he said earlier this week might be a sign that Kyiv plans to attack his country — another unproven claim.

Lukashenko, who is closely allied with Russian President Vladimir Putin, said on Sunday that the Belarusian-Ukrainian border was mined "as never before" and that Ukrainian troops would incur huge losses if they tried to cross it.

Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin on Friday said there was a high probability of an armed provocation from neighboring Ukraine. He said the situation at the shared border "remains tense."

Belarus allowed Russian troops to enter Ukraine via its territory in the early stages of Moscow's invasion in February 2022, which would have provided the Russian military with the shortest possible land route to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, though the attempt to take the city was foiled.

Since then, Belarus has aided Moscow in other ways as well, such as allowing Russian missile launchers to be stationed on its territory.

But so far, Belarusian troops appear not to have directly taken part in combat within Ukraine.

Ukraine's ambassador to Germany, Oleksii Makeiev, urged the government to not waiver in its support for Ukraine, a German newspaper reported.

He emphasized that the security of Europe depends on Germany's ability and will to continue supporting Kyiv and hoped that the government would find ways to fund their security needs. 

This comes after AFP reported Saturday that Germany, which is the second largest contributor of aid to Ukraine, plans to halve its military aid to war-stricken country in 2025. Instead, Chancellor Olaf Scholz's government would bank on money derived from frozen Russian assets, AFP reported.

A recent German report cites a letter from Finance Minister Christian Lindner dated August 5, reviewed by DPA, which says that future support for Ukraine might come from interest earned on frozen Russian state assets.

Berlin has earmarked €8 billion for Ukraine for this year.

Makeiev, in a post on social media platform X, said that "the security of Europe depends on Germany's political will to continue to play a frontline role in supporting Ukraine."  

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov boasted of having a Cyberbeast luxury truck from US carmaker Tesla.

"A truly invulnerable and fast animal," Kadyrov said in a post on the Telegram messaging service.

Kadyrov thanked Tesla CEO Elon Musk and invited him to Chechnya.

"I express my sincere gratitude to Elon Musk! This is, of course, the strongest genius of our time and a specialist. A great man!" he said.

"I am sure this 'beast' will be of great use to our fighters," he said, referring to soldiers fighting in Ukraine.

Kadyrov is the head of the autonomous republic of Chechnya in Russia's northern Caucasus.

An industrial warehouse containing diesel fuel in Russia's Rostov region has caught fire after debris from a destroyed Ukrainian drone hit the building, the regional governor has said.

"Firefighting units were called in to put out the fire," Governor Vasily Golubev said on the Telegram messaging app, saying in a separate post that no one was injured in the incident in the Proletarsk district.

Russia's Defense Ministry said on Telegram that its air defense units destroyed two Ukraine-launched drones over Rostov overnight.

Kyiv has said that it is targeting Russia's energy infrastructure in particular in a bid to undermine supply to that country's military amid its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Kyiv's forces have bolstered their foothold in Russia's Kursk region, where Ukraine has been carrying out an offensive since August 6.

Zelenskyy said Ukrainian army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi had reported that positions in the area had been strengthened and the stabilized area had grown. 

Previous reports from Kyiv have said Ukraine controls more than 80 localities and 1,500 square kilometers (580 square miles) in the region, figures that cannot be independently verified.

The Ukrainian Air Force says it has destroyed a strategically important road bridge over the Seim River in the Glushkovo district amid Kyiv's almost two-week-long incursion in Russia's Kursk region.  

Ukrainian Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk published a video on the messaging app showing the purported bombing of the bridge, which is a crucial supply route for Russian troops.

Experts say the footage seems authentic.

Russia had reported earlier that the bridge had been destroyed. Russian military bloggers said on Telegram that the bridge was first shelled with US-made rockets and then destroyed by a strike with a glide bomb. 

They also said two volunteers in a car had been killed while trying to bring people to safety during the shelling.

Moscow's forces have destroyed numerous Ukrainian bridges during Russia's full-scale invasion of its neighbor.
 

Ukrainian forces say they succeeded in warding off overnight missile and drone attacks targeting Kyiv. 

"This is the third ballistic missile attack on the capital in August with a clear interval of six days between each attack," the Kyiv City Military Administration posted on Telegram.

No damage or casualties were reported from the missile attack. The administration said Russian forces had "most likely used North Korean ballistic missiles of the KN-23 type."

"All enemy drones were destroyed far outside the city," it added.
    

Russian state atomic agency Rosatom told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that there was a worsening situation at the Kursk nuclear power plant in Russia.

Ukrainian forces have been pushing into the Russian border region of Kursk over the past several days in a surprise incursion.

Rosatom chief Alexei Likhachov invited the IAEA's Rafael Grossi to visit Kursk and see the situation at the plant and the associated town of Kurchatov, Rosatom told the Russian news agency Interfax.

According to Russian reports, missile parts were recently found at the nuclear power plant site.

It comes after the IAEA said that it believed that the situation at the Zaporizhzhya plant in Russian-occupied southern Ukraine was worsening following a drone attack in its vicinity.

Ukrainian air defense units were seeking to repeal a Russian air attack on Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, the city's military administration said.

Kyiv was under air raid alerts from around 0200 UTC alongside most of central and northeastern Ukraine.

Explosions were heard over Kyiv, according to a witness for the Reuters news agency.

sdi/msh (AFP, AP, Reuters, dpa)