Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that Russian forces had tried to evict Ukrainian troops from positions in Russia's Kursk border region, but that Kyiv's forces were holding their borders. “Russia tried to push back our positions, but we are holding the designated lines,” Zelensky said in his nightly video address. Russia's Defense Ministry said Friday that its forces have recaptured two villages in the border Kursk region where Ukrainian troops launched a massive incursion in August. Zelenskyy acknowledged that the Ukrainian advance into Kursk was aimed at drawing Russian troops from forward positions in eastern Ukraine.
Prosecutors in the Donetsk region on Saturday said two people were killed in Russian attacks on villages near Kurakov.. The General Staff of Ukraine's army reported in an evening report that 47 clashes took place in the area around Curacao and another 27 in the Pokrovsk sector in the northwest. Russia's Defense Ministry announced on Friday that it had captured Ostrivske, a village on a reservoir near its main Russian target, the city of Kurakov. Advance through Donetsk region. Ukraine has not acknowledged the loss of the village, but military bloggers have reported Russian advances in the area.
Ukrainian military recruiting officers have raided restaurants, bars and concert halls in Kiev, checking military registration documents and detaining non-compliant men.. Local media reported on Saturday that authorities stopped men leaving a concert by Ukrainian rock band Okeyane Elsie, and some were forcibly detained. Such raids in the capital are unusual and reflect Ukraine's dire need for new recruits. The raids also reportedly took place at clubs and restaurants in other cities. All Ukrainian men aged 25-60 are eligible for conscription, and men aged 18-60 are not allowed to leave the country.
The Kremlin said Saturday that Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris' description of Vladimir Putin as a “murderous dictator” exposed how politicians in Washington tried to impose their views on the world. Pesco's comments appeared in response to Harris's criticism in a newly published book by American journalist Bob Woodward while Republican nominee and former President Donald Trump was in office. He had sent Covid tests to Russia at the height of the pandemic. In a radio interview, he described Putin as a “murderous dictator”.
Leaders of a group of atomic bomb survivors awarded the Nobel Peace Prize renewed their call for the abolition of nuclear weapons and warned on Saturday that the risk of nuclear war was growing.. “The international situation is getting progressively worse, and wars are now being waged because countries are threatening to use nuclear weapons,” said Shigemitsu Tanaka, a survivor of the 1945 US bombing of Nagasaki and co-chairman of the Nihon Hidankyo group. Vladimir Putin signaled last month that Moscow would consider retaliating with nuclear weapons if the US and its allies allow Ukraine to launch long-range Western missiles into Russia.
Ukraine's military said on Saturday it had struck a Russian-controlled oil terminal in the partially occupied Luhansk region. It fuels Russia's war efforts. Russian state media reported that the terminal near the city of Rovenki was hit by a Ukrainian drone, with no casualties and the fire extinguished.
Russian emergency services say a massive fire at the Feodosia oil terminal in Russia's annexed Crimea has been brought under control. Ukraine burned for six days after the attack, state news agency Ria Novosti reported.
Russia's Defense Ministry said 47 Ukrainian drones had been intercepted and destroyed by its air defense systems overnight as of Saturday.: 17 in the Krasnodar region, 16 in the Sea of Azov, 12 in the Kursk region, and two in the Belgorod region, all bordering Ukraine. Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Klatkov said on Saturday that Ukrainian shelling and drone strikes in the past 24 hours had killed one person and wounded 14 others.
In Ukraine, air defense forces shot down 24 of 28 drones launched overnight against Ukraine, the country's air force said.. Zaporizhzhia regional governor Ivan Fedorov said two women were injured Saturday in Russian attacks in the capital of the southern Ukrainian region, also known as Zaporizhzhia.
