Kyiv, Ukraine: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he went on Thursday to border areas in Sumy region, just across the frontier from Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops are staging an unprecedented offensive.
Over two years into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Kyiv’s troops caught the Kremlin off-guard on August 6 by launching a large-scale assault inside Russian territory, where they captured dozens of settlements.
“I visited the border area of the Sumy region and held a meeting with Commander-in-Chief (Oleksandr) Syrsky and the head of the Sumy regional military administration,” Zelensky said on social media.
Zelensky said his troops had seized another settlement and “replenished the exchange fund,” meaning it captured more prisoners of war to be used as leverage for future swaps.
Ukrainian officials have said the goals of the offensive included creating a “buffer zone” in Russian territory, seeking an end to the war on “fair” terms and stretching Russian forces.
Kyiv’s troops are however still struggling in the eastern Donbas region, where the Russian army has been making steady gains.
Zelensky said he discussed “steps taken to strengthen the defense toward Toretsk and Pokrovsk” in the Donbas, frontline areas with fierce fighting.
As the war stretches into its third year, Ukraine has been stepping up its attacks on Russian territory.
A source in Ukraine’s Security Services told AFP that Ukrainian forces had hit the Marinovka airfield in the Volgograd region, saying “each operation reduces Russia’s superiority in the skies and significantly limits their aircraft capabilities.”
Volgograd regional governor Andrei Bocharov said Thursday that a drone downed by air defenses had sparked a fire “at a defense ministry facility” without giving details.
Russia has denounced the Kursk offensive, in which at least 31 civilians have died and 143 have been injured, according to TASS state news agency.
Zelensky says has visited Ukraine’s Sumy area, bordering Russia’s Kursk region
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Zelensky says has visited Ukraine’s Sumy area, bordering Russia’s Kursk region
- Zelensky said his troops had seized another settlement and “replenished the exchange fund,” meaning it captured more prisoners of war to be used as leverage for future swaps
California joins UN health network following US departure from WHO
- California Governor Gavin Newsom decried the United States’ move on Friday, calling it a “reckless decision” that will hurt many people
CALIFORNIA: California said on Friday it will become the first US state to join the World Health Organization’s global outbreak response network following the Trump administration’s decision to pull Washington out of the WHO.
The network, comprised of more than 360 technical institutions, responds to public health events with the deployment of staff and resources to affected countries. It has tackled major public health events, including COVID-19. The state’s decision to join the network comes more than a year after US President Donald Trump gave notice that Washington would depart from the WHO. On Thursday, it officially withdrew from the agency, saying its decision reflected failures in the UN health agency’s management of the pandemic.
California Governor Gavin Newsom decried the United States’ move on Friday, calling it a “reckless decision” that will hurt many people.
“California will not bear witness to the chaos this decision will bring,” Newsom said in a statement. “We will continue to foster partnerships across the globe and remain at the forefront of public health preparedness, including through our membership as the only state in WHO’s Global Outbreak Alert & Response Network.”
The governor’s office said he met with the WHO’s Director General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, this week, where they discussed collaborating to detect and respond to emerging public health threats.
The WHO did not immediately respond when reached for comment.
