Ukraine-Russia war latest: Ukraine 'takes 100 prisoners of war' inside captured region - and 'launches major attack on Russian airfields' (2024)

Ukraine's invasion of Russia's Kursk region is "very damaging" to Vladimir Putin, the former US permanent representative to NATO has told Sky News.

Kurt Volker said Mr Putin was claiming to be "Peter the Great" and he had ended up looking more like "Nicholas II" (the last tsar of Russia).

"I think this is very damaging to Putin domestically," he said.

"I don't think they have found their footing yet as to how they want to deal with it."

Mr Volker said "this was a very different situation for Putin" and "people can see it".

"Putin was not fighting this war in Ukraine to lose," he added.

"He wasn't fighting halfway or holding back. He keeps saying he is going to escalate but if he could have escalated he would have already done so.

"This exposes he is not in a position to escalate. In fact, his forces are weaker than they appear.

"He is not capable of attacking Ukraine and defending Russia at the same time."

We reported earlier on comments made by Ukraine's top commander, who said 100 Russian prisoners of war had been captured today in Kursk (see post at 11.44am).

Oleksandr Syrskyi, who was shown giving the update to Volodymyr Zelenskyy via video link, said the capture of servicemen in Russia will "accelerate the return of our guys and girls home".

Ukraine's ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets has now said he has discussed the Russian prisoners taken with his Russian counterpart.

"I see that this situation at least forced the initiative from the Russian side," he told national TV.

Ukraine is believed to have captured more than 1,000 Russian soldiers since launching the invasion of the Kursk region.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy is appealing for allies to allow long-range strikes on targets inside Russia.

In his nightly address published on Telegram, Mr Zelenskyy appealed to partners to let Ukraine fire missiles deeper into Russian territory.

"The bolder the partners' decisions, the less Putin can do,"he said.

The Ukrainian leader has also hailed Ukraine's "good advance" in Russia's Kursk region, saying Kyiv was achieving its strategic goal.

Over the week we have been bringing you coverage on Ukraine's invasion of the Kursk border region.

Here is what we know at the moment:

• Ukrainian forces are pushing on with their major cross-border attack;
• Senior Kyiv officials said today Ukraine was creating a "buffer zone" in the Kursk region and plans to organise humanitarian assistance and evacuation corridors for civilians looking to go either to Russia or to Ukraine;
• Since the start of the day, assault troops had advanced two miles in some parts of Kursk, the commander of the Ukrainian military, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said;
• Also, Ukrainian troops took more than 100 Russian soldiers prisoner, he said;
• Ukraine's general staff added that troops deployed in Kursk destroyed a Russian Su-34 jet used to launch glide bombs at Ukrainian frontline positions and cities;
• A Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesman said yesterday that Kyiv had no intention of occupying the Russian territory it says it is holding.

Defence secretary John Healey has spoken to his US counterpart Lloyd Austin on the situation in Ukraine and the Middle East today.

In a statement on X, the minister said that as "Ukrainian forces continued their courageous fight against Russian aggression", the two countries "discussed the need to stand by Ukraine for as long as it takes, and deliver the vital equipment they need".

The meeting comes as Ukrainian forces push on with their major cross-border advance into Russia's Kursk region for a second week.

Two people have been killed after Russian drones attacked a medical battalion vehicle in Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region, the regional police have reported.

The drone attack killed two medics in the settlement of Bilyy Kolodiaz, Serhii Bolvinov, head of the investigative department of the National Police, said.

Three civilians in a nearby moving car were wounded in the attack, he added.

Russia denies deliberately targeting civilians, but thousands have been killed and wounded in its strikes during the invasion.

Video has emerged purportedly showing Ukrainian troops mocking Vladimir Putin's generals after capturing a command post in the Russian border region of Kursk.

In the clip, which was shared by blogger for WarTranslated Dmitri Masinski, two soldiers jokingly say: "We asked for two tanks!"

Laughter erupts among the men, as another solider says: "Grab a pen and write that down."

While holding a phone, one soldier shouts the last names of former Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu and current army chief Valery Gerasimov, before bellowing: "Where is the ammo?"

Earlier today, senior Kyiv officials said Ukraine was creating a "buffer zone" in the region and planned to organise humanitarian assistance and evacuation corridors for civilians looking to go either to Russia or to Ukraine were under way.

Ukraine's invasion of Russia's Kursk region has "made a mockery of Vladimir Putin red lines", UkraineAlert editor at theEurasia Centreof the Atlantic Council writes.

In his piece, Peter Dickinson says the latest attack was a "watershed moment" and Ukraine was able to "catch the Russians completely off-guard".

While the aims of the attack remain shrouded in mystery, the expert explains that it is possible to "identify a number of likely objectives" - the most obvious being to ease the military pressure in the south and east of the country.

He explains the attack could force Russia to redeploy troops and such a move would ease the pressure on the frontline.

It also "creates opportunities for Ukraine to regain the military initiative".

And when it comes to Russia's reaction, Mr Dickinson says what we are currently witnessing is "entirely in line with a well established pattern of Russian threats being exposed as bluffs by Ukrainian boldness".

He notes that during the first year of the war in Ukraine, Mr Putin had warned that any attempt to reclaim "Russian land" would result in a nuclear response.

But when Ukraine liberated Kherson, the Russian leader did not respond in such a way but instead ordered his troops to retreat.

And when Ukraine deployed missiles to sink or cause significant damage to the Russian Black Sea Fleet this year, Mr Putin told his remaining warships to withdraw.

"This record of inglorious Russian retreats makes the West's frequently voiced fear of escalation all the more difficult to justify," Mr Dickinson writes.

"Ukrainians will now be hoping Putin's characteristically weak response to the Kursk offensive can persuade Western leaders to belatedly abandon their failed policies of escalation management and acknowledge that the quickest way to end the war is by arming Ukraine for victory."

As briefly reported here in our 12.12 post, Ukraine carried out a drone strike on four Russian military airfields in an overnight operation, according to a Ukrainian security source.

We have since received more detail on the operation.

The strike, which targeted Russia's Voronezh, Kursk, Savasleyka and Borisoglebsk airbases, aimed to undermine Moscow's ability to use warplanes for gliding bomb attacks on Ukraine, the source told Reuters.

Ukraine is still assessing the scale of damage, the source said.

Sky News cannot verify this claim.

Russia's defence ministry said earlier that its air defences had destroyed 117 drones and four tactical missiles launched by Ukraine at several regions including Kursk.

The strike on the airfields comes as Ukrainian troops try to press forward in Russia's Kursk region.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been meeting with officials to discuss key issues surrounding the situation in Kursk this afternoon, including security and humanitarian aid.

The Ukrainian leader said his country was "defending itself and the lives of its people in border communities" while also "taking active steps on Russian territory".

Earlier this week, Ukraine's top military commander said his troops were in control of 1,000 square kilometres (386 sq miles) of territory.

Kyiv's aims are not entirely clear, but some analysts speculate that the attack aims to strengthen Ukraine's hand in future peace negotiations.