Kursk invasion intended to create Russo-Ukrainian ‘buffer zone,’ Zelenskyy says

The surprise Ukrainian invasion of Russia’s Kursk region is intended to create a “buffer zone” between the two countries and further complicate Moscow’s cross-border offensive, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday.

“It is now our primary task in defensive operations overall to destroy as much Russian war potential as possible and conduct maximum counteroffensive actions,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly address, the first public acknowledgment of the offensive’s true intent. 

“This includes creating a buffer zone on the aggressor’s territory – our operation in the Kursk region,” Zelenskyy continued.

Ukrainian forces destroyed one bridge in the region this weekend and struck a second in a bid to disrupt Russian supply lines. Pro-Kremlin war bloggers have since acknowledged that the former strike, which targeted a bridge on the Seim River near the village of Glushkovo, Russia, was successful. The location and efficacy of the second attack were not specified as of Sunday morning.

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Inset image shows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy over the reported site of a successful strike on a Russian bridge serving as a key supply route for forces in the country’s Kursk Oblast. (Ukrainian Presidency/Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)

The reported strikes’ effect on Russian infrastructure further complicates a situation that has already placed Moscow on an unexpected defensive, forcing it to re-evaluate its strategy along Ukraine’s northeastern border, which is a region that was largely written off as insignificant to the conflict just months after it began in 2022.

“The Ukrainian operation in Kursk Oblast [has forced] a decision-point on the Kremlin and the Russian military command about whether to view the 1,000 kilometer-long international border with northeastern Ukraine as a legitimate front line that Russia must defend,” the Institute for the Study of War’s George Barros previously told Fox News Digital.

This infographic titled “New front in Russian-Ukrainian war: Kursk” was created in Ankara, Turkey, on Aug. 8, 2024. On Aug. 6, the Ukrainian army launched a full-scale assault on Russia’s southern Kursk region, creating a new front in the conflict. (Murat Usubali/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“Russia has spent considerable resources to build fortifications along the international border area,” Barros noted, “but has not allocated the manpower and [matériel] to significantly man and defend those fortifications.”

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Ukraine has claimed roughly 400 square miles of Russian territory since launching the operation on Aug. 6.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.