Ukraine will soon be able to attack ‘any part’ of Russia as Zelensky sends Putin warning | World | News
Ukraine will soon be able to strike “any point” of Russia the Kyiv government considers a threat, Volodymir Zelensky said.
The Ukrainian president’s warning to Vladimir Putin comes as Ukrainian defensive forces continue to push into the Kursk region over two weeks since the start of their cross-border incursion.
In a 13-minute speech marking Ukraine‘s Independence Day, Mr Zelensky noted Moscow had wanted to “destroy” his country but war ultimately “returned to its home.”
He said: “Our enemy will know what the Ukrainian way of retaliation is…. They will know that, sooner or later, a Ukrainian response will reach any point in the Russian Federation that is a source of danger to the life of our state or our people.
“And the one who wanted to turn our land into a buffer zone should think about preventing his country from becoming a buffer federation.”
The Ukrainian President symbolically chose to record his address in the northeastern town of Sumy, near the Russian border, where Ukrainian forces crossed into Russia on August 6.
Ukraine‘s military claims to hold 480 square miles of Russian territory in Kursk, and in the past week it has also launched drone attacks that have struck strategic bridges and Russian airfields and drone bases.
Ukraine‘s top military commander, General Oleksandr Syrskyi, honoured the soldiers who fought in the Kursk region with military awards.
On Saturday, Gen Syrskyi wrote on Telegram: “Our independence is in our blood.
“In the blood that flows in our veins, in the blood that our heroes shed for their native land.”
As Ukraine presses its offensive into Russia, it is also evacuating residents from Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine, as Russian forces are now six miles from the strategic city.
Residents of Pokrovsk, once a city of 60,000, registered for evacuation at a central school on Friday and then, carrying bundles of belongings, boarded trains to take them to areas further from the conflict.
Should the city fall, the defeat would imperil Ukraine’s defences and bring Russia closer to its stated aim of capturing the Donetsk region.
In light of these developments, the US Defence Department said the Biden administration will be sending Ukraine an additional £94.6 million in new military aid.
The latest package of aid includes air defence missiles, munitions for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), Javelins and an array of other anti-armour missiles, counter-drone and counter-electronic warfare systems and equipment, 155mm and 105mm artillery ammunition, vehicles and other equipment.
