Ukraine's incursion into Russia's Kursk region resulted in the Russian military diverting 40,000 troops to the area. Ukrainian forces have reduced the ability of Russian troops to launch attacks in the Donetsk region on the eastern front. Kyiv does not intend to hold Russian territory but that the incursion gives Ukraine more leverage in possible peace negotiations and that captured Russian soldiers are of value for prisoner exchanges. Three such exchanges involving Russian and Ukrainian soldiers have been conducted since the August 6 incursion.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on September 19 that Ukraine's incursion into Russia's southwestern Kursk region had resulted in the Russian military diverting 40,000 troops to the area.
His comments in his nightly video address came after Moscow and Kyiv gave conflicting accounts of the situation in the Kursk region following Ukraine's surprise incursion launched in August.
Earlier on September 19, Russia's military claimed it had gained ground in attempts to beat back the incursion, while Ukraine's military said the Russian counteroffensive had been halted.
Russian Major General Apti Alaudinov, commander of a Chechen special forces unit and an official within the Defense Ministry, said on September 19 that Russian forces had recaptured two villages in the Kursk region.
Ukrainian military spokesman Oleksiy Dmytrashkivskiy, meanwhile, told AFP that a Russian flanking maneuver in the Kursk region was "stopped."
"The situation was stabilized and today everything is under control, they are not successful," Dmytrashkivskiy said on September 19.
In recent weeks Russia has claimed to have retaken several villages overrun by Ukrainian forces during the incursion. At its height, Ukraine was believed to have controlled some 1,300 square kilometers in the Kursk region, which borders northeastern Ukraine.
Zelenskiy has said that Kyiv does not intend to hold Russian territory but that the incursion gives Ukraine more leverage in possible peace negotiations and that captured Russian soldiers are of value for prisoner exchanges.
Three such exchanges involving Russian and Ukrainian soldiers have been conducted since the August 6 incursion.
Zelenskiy also said in his nightly video that Ukrainian forces have reduced the ability of Russian troops to launch attacks in the Donetsk region on the eastern front.
Russian forces took aim on September 19 at the Sumy region, hitting a nursing home, Zelenskiy said. The strike killed one person and wounded 12 others, the State Emergency Service said on Telegram. The post included pictures showing elderly people in wheelchairs waiting outdoors and others lying on the ground under blankets.
The strike partially destroyed the fifth floor of the building and blew out windows on the ground floor. More than 140 people had to be evacuated, the Emergency Service said.
Russia's counteroffensive on its own territory, which Alaudinov said resulted in the recapture of the towns of Nikolayevo-Darino and Darino on September 19, has reportedly left its troops within 15 kilometers of the Ukrainian border.
It has also put Russian forces within striking distance of the Russian city of Sverdlikovo, located near the border, which Ukrainian forces have been using as a logistics hub.
Even as Ukrainian forces advanced into Russia, the Russian military says it has made significant gains in its attempts to capture the strategic city of Pokrovsk in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region.
"Our entire front has moved forward," Alaudinov said on September 19, referring to both the counteroffensive in Russia and the advancements in eastern Ukraine.
The governor of Russia's Belgorod region, meanwhile, said on September 19 that Ukraine was continuing to target the region with shelling and drone strikes.
Vyacheslav Gladkov said that only minor damage had been reported after 22 drones and more than 160 artillery strikes.
In Ukraine, the national energy grid operator Ukrenerho said that Russian strikes in the northeastern region of Sumy had led to temporary power cuts.
Ukraine's energy infrastructure has been heavily targeted by Russia, which the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in its latest report could lead to an energy shortfall this winter.
"Further attacks on infrastructure, unforeseen equipment failures and missed maintenance cycles add further risks," the IEA said on September 19.
The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine in a report the same day said that increased Russian efforts to attack energy infrastructure beginning in the fall of 2022 had left Ukrainian cities without power for hours at a time over the course of weeks.
"There are reasonable grounds to believe that multiple aspects of the military campaign to damage or destroy Ukraine's civilian electricity and heat-producing and transmission infrastructure have violated foundational principles of international humanitarian law," the report said.
On September 19, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that 160 million euros ($178 million) taken from the proceeds of frozen Russian assets would be sent to Ukraine to help it deal with urgent humanitarian needs this winter.
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