Ukraine war briefing: Zelenskyy speaks of military presence in Russia's Belgorod region for first time

The Guardian

08-04-2025

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said for the first time Monday that Ukrainian forces were operating in Russia's Belgorod region, where Moscow reported attacks in March. Belgorod is regularly the target of Ukrainian air attacks and is close to Russia's Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces have been desperately trying to hang on to territory since launching a surprise incursion last year. Zelenskyy said in his daily address that General Oleksandr Syrsky had reported on 'our presence in Kursk region and our presence in Belgorod region'. He added: 'We continue to conduct active operations in the border areas on the enemy's territory, and this is absolutely right – the war must return to where it came from.' It is the first time since the full-scale invasion began that Zelenskyy has explicitly mentioned a Ukrainian presence in Belgorod, a border region with a population of about 1.5 million people. The Russian military acknowledged facing Ukrainian land attacks in the region in March. According to the DeepState military blog, which is considered close to Ukraine's army, Ukrainian troops have occupied a 13 sq km (five square mile) area in the Russian region, near the border village of Demidovka. Zelenskyy and other Ukrainian officials have said the incursion into Kursk and other Russian territory is to divert Russian forces attacking the Ukrainian regions of Sumy and Kharkiv.
Anger and outrage gripped Zelenskyy's home town on Monday as it held funerals for some of the 20 people, including nine children, killed by a Russian missile that struck apartment buildings and a playground. More than 70 were wounded in the attack on Kryvyi Rih last Friday evening. The children were playing on swings and in a sandbox in a tree-lined park at the time. Bodies were strewn across the grass. 'We are not asking for pity,' Oleksandr Vilkul, the head of the city administration, wrote on Telegram as Kryvyi Rih mourned. 'We demand the world's outrage.' The UN Human Rights Office in Ukraine said it was the deadliest single verified strike harming children since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022. It was also one of the deadliest attacks so far this year.
Teacher Iryna Kholod remembered Arina and Radyslav, both 7 years old and killed in Friday's strike, as being 'like little suns in the classroom'. Radyslav, she said, was proud to be part of a school campaign collecting pet food for stray animals. 'He held the bag like it was treasure. He wanted to help,' she told the Associated Press. After Friday evening, 'two desks in my classroom were empty forever,' Kholod said, adding that she still has unopened birthday gifts for them.
'How do I tell parents to return their textbooks? How do I teach without them?' she asked.
Donald Trump has accused Russia of 'bombing like crazy right now' even as the US president claimed the parties were 'sort of close' on a deal. On Monday he reiterated his opposition to Russia's bombing of Ukraine as his administration participates in talks seeking an end to the fighting. 'I'm not happy about what's going on', he told reporters in the White House. 'So we're meeting with Russia, we're meeting with Ukraine, and we're getting sort of close, but I'm not happy with all the bombing that's going in the last week or so,' he said. 'It's a horrible thing.'
Trump's Monday remarks came hours after the Kremlin said it supported the idea of a truce in Ukraine but had many 'questions' about how such a deal would work, pushing back at US and European suggestions that it was playing for time. Russia has kept up its strikes on Ukraine unabated despite the US president's promise to bring peace within '24 hours' of returning to the White House in January.