Zelensky confirms Ukrainian troops active in the Russian Belgorod region

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has publicly recognized for the first time that his troops are active in the Belgorod region in Russia.

“We continue to carry out active operations in border areas in enemy territory, and it is absolutely right-war must come back where it comes from,” he said on Monday.

His comments also referred to the Kursk region of Russia, where Ukraine still has a small area after a major offensive last year. Moscow has since taken up most of the territory.

Zelensky said that “the main objective” was to protect the border regions of Sumy and Kharkiv from Ukraine, and to “relieve pressure” on other parts of the large front line, especially in the Eastern Donetsk region.

The Russian army had reported Ukrainian attempts last month to cross the Belgorod region – but said such attacks had been pushed.

Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a large -scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and Moscow currently controls around 20% of the territory of Ukraine.

In his late video speech on Monday, Zelensky said he was informed by his first general commander Oleksandr Syrskyi about the situation on the front “, including our presence in the Kursk and Belgorod regions”.

Zelensky thanked several army units defending Ukraine, including the 225th Assault Regiment deployed in the Belgorod region.

“Well done, guys! I’m proud of everyone who fights for Ukraine!” The president said.

He has provided no other details. It is his first explicit recognition of Ukrainian troops in Belgorod.

On March 18, Zelensky had indirectly confirmed that the Ukrainian troops were there.

“There is an operation there,” he said when he asked journalists to comment on a statement from the Russian Defense Ministry that Ukrainian troops had tried without success to enter the western part of the Belgorod region.

Russia had declared that all Ukrainian attempts to progress to the villages of Demidovka and Prilesye had been pushed back and that a cross -border raid had been prevented.

However, several Russian military bloggers at the time pointed out half-random fights itself, which is about two kilometers (1.2 mile) from the Ukrainian border.

The American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) also declared in an update on March 21 that “Ukrainian forces had recently advanced in Belgorod”.

“The Russian milliggers said that the Ukrainian forces had advanced and consolidate positions on the outskirts of Demidovka and Prilesye,” said the ISW, adding that such claims were not confirmed.

Over the past two days, Russian military bloggers have reported that Ukrainian forces withdrew from the Demidovka region.

Ukraine’s operation in Belgorod would be on a much smaller scale compared to its actions in Kursk, where kyiv seized a certain number of villages, including the regional city of Sudzha.

Zelensky and his best commanders said on several occasions that such incursions had forced Moscow to redepract the troops from the Donetsk region, where Russian troops have made stable – although slow – progress in recent months.

Ukraine could also hope to exchange the Russian areas it holds for certain parts of the Ukrainian regions occupied by Moscow in future peace negotiations which are driven by the United States.

A certain number of war analysts – both in Ukraine and in the West – have questioned the military opportunity of kyiv operations on Russian soil, indicating high combat losses and arms supply difficulties.