Ukrainian troops advance in the Russian Belgorod, confirms Zelenskyy

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed the presence of Ukrainian troops in the Russian region of Belgorod, affirming that operations active in border areas are a justified response to the large -scale invasion of Moscow.

“We continue to carry out active operations in border areas in enemy territory, and it’s absolutely just – war must come back where it comes from,” said Zelenskyy.

In what marks the first official declaration on the foray into Belgorod, Zelenskyy stressed that the main objective of these actions is to protect Ukrainian cities and colonies in the regions of Sumy and Kharkiv, which Russia regularly attacks.

Ukrainian troops would have crossed the Russian border in the Belgorod region at the end of March.

According to the Institute for the Study of War Assessment on March 29, geolocalized images confirmed that Ukrainian forces were heading for the village of Popovka, near the border between Russia and Ukraine.

Moscow also confirmed the invasion, saying that Ukrainian troops were trying to “get stuck” in the western part of the Belgorod region. The Russian authorities said kyiv was trying to “create a negative context” in the midst of the current talks between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.

This is not the first time that Ukraine’s forces have been going through the border with Belgorod. They have carried out occasional raids since 2023, including those who have Russian volunteer soldiers who fight on the Ukrainian side. Raids generally lasted a few hours and were not of strategic military importance.

This contrasts with the current operation, which looks more like the Kursk foray into August 2024.

While the Ukrainian troops crossed the border with the Belgorod region, they also withdrew from the Russian Kursk, where the forces of Moscow took over the Southzha logistics center and a large part of the territory that Ukrainian troops had held since August of last year.

We still do not know how many troops are present on the ground, how important kyiv attaches to the new Incursion de Belgorod and how long he plans to hang on to it.