Volodymyr Zelensky has confirmed for the first time that Ukrainian troops have launched an incursion into Russia‘s Belgorod region as they seek to protect border towns from Vladimir Putin‘s forces.
The Ukrainian incursion into Belgorod comes eight months after Kyiv‘s troops launched a lightning offensive into Russia’s neighbouring Kursk region – though localised fighting in Belgorod has reportedly been raging for weeks.
The invasion of Kursk in August, which saw Ukraine’s army capture thousands of square kilometres of territory, sought to halt Russian advances in Donetsk by drawing Moscow‘s resources while seizing land that could be used as a bargaining chip in ceasefire negotiations.
Russia has since clawed back almost all of its territory there, with Ukraine’s war-weary troops now clinging to a sliver of soil as the might of Moscow’s military bears down on them.
Now, Russian forces will be tasked with heading off another incursion, though it is not yet clear to what extent Zelensky’s troops will push into Belgorod.
In a video address last night, the Ukrainian President said his top commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, had presented a report ‘on the front line, our presence in the Kursk region and our presence in the Belgorod region’.
‘We continue active operations in the enemy’s border areas and this is absolutely justified. The war must return to where it came from.
‘Our main objective remains the same: to protect our land and our communities in the Sumy and Kharkiv regions from Russian occupiers.’
Russian service members walk past a destroyed building in the town of Sudzha, which was recently retaken by Russia’s armed forces in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in the Kursk region
A handout photo made available by the acting Governor of the Kursk region Alexander Khinshtein shows the governor during his visit to Pogrebki, Kursk region, Russia, 07 April 2025
A Russian ‘Grad’ self-propelled 122 mm multiple rocket launcher fires toward Ukrainian positions in the Russian – Ukrainian border area
Zelensky’s confirmation that his troops were fighting in Belgorod came just 24 hours after Moscow said its troops had seized the village of Basivka in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region
Zelensky repeated Kyiv’s long-held contention that despite Russia’s recapture of areas of Kursk in recent weeks, the operation was successful in that it drew Russian forces away from the war’s main front line in Ukraine’s Donetsk region.
‘Due to the entire Kursk operation, we have managed to reduce pressure on other frontline sectors, particularly in Donetsk region,’ he said.
The president last month referred obliquely to ‘certain steps’ undertaken by Ukraine’s military in Russia ‘a little below the Kursk region’, implicitly suggesting a presence in Belgorod region.
Russian military bloggers subsequently reported battles in Belgorod region between Russian and Ukrainian troops around the settlements of Popovka and Demidovka.
Ukraine’s Armed Forces have reportedly occupied land stretching from Popovka, close to the Belgorod-Kursk border, down to the village of Prilesye, roughly 10 kilometres further south.
For now, it seems the operation in Belgorod is primarily dedicated to preventing a Russian advance into Ukrainian borderlands, rather than a concerted effort to seize fresh territory.
The situation in Belgorod region is ‘under control’, Russian commander Apti Alaudinov was quoted by the state RIA news agency as saying late last week.
Alaudinov, commander of Chechnya‘s Akhmat special forces, told Russian state television that Moscow’s forces were ‘clearing areas’ of Ukrainian troops in Belgorod.
‘In general, our situation is quite good,’ RIA cited him as saying. ‘The enemy does not tire of throwing in new meat, although he sees every day that he suffers terrible losses and cannot achieve results.’
‘Two Majors’, a pro-Russian war blogger with over 1.2 million subscribers, wrote on Friday that Ukrainian troops were trying to break through fortified forest areas along the Belgorod border.
And on Friday, Belgorod regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, reported Ukraine had stepped up shelling and drone attacks of Russian border towns including Murom, Malinovka, Masychevo and Shebekino.
Zelensky’s confirmation that his troops were fighting in Belgorod came just 24 hours after Moscow said its troops had seized the village of Basivka in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region – opposite Kursk – and were battering Ukrainian forces in different settlements.
A Ukrainian military spokesperson issued a new denial on Monday that Basivka was in Russian hands after the Ukrainian Centre for Countering Disinformation insisted on Sunday the village had not fallen to Moscow’s troops.
The battle rages on as ceasefire talks between Russia and the US appear to have stalled.
Kryvyi Rih, Zelensky’s hometown, was the site of a particularly brutal missile attack on Friday in which 11 adults and nine children were killed, leading Ukraine’s military to suggest Moscow had deployed cluster munitions
On his Instagram page, Zelensky shared a selection of photographs that laid bare the extent of Russia’s latest attack on his hometown, Kryvyi Rih
People react next to a body at the site of a Russian missile strike in a residential area, in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, April 4, 2025
The aftermath of a Russian stike on Novobavarskyi District, Kharkiv, Ukraine
Last month, the US and Ukraine agreed a partial ceasefire that aimed to halt strikes on energy and maritime infrastructure, but Russia did not agree to the deal and continued to batter Ukraine’s power plants and energy grid along with civilian targets.
Kryvyi Rih, Zelensky’s hometown, was the site of a particularly brutal missile attack on Friday in which 11 adults and nine children were killed, leading Ukraine’s military to suggest Moscow had deployed cluster munitions.
Mayor Oleksandr Vilkul said the strike was the deadliest of the war on Kryvyi Rih, an industrial centre with a pre-war population of around 600,000 that is regularly targeted by Russian missiles and drones.
‘Revenge will be inevitable, because this is a crime without a statute of limitations,’ he wrote on social media.
The victims ranged from 3 to 79 years old, he said, adding that 33 people including 4 children were still being treated in hospital.
Ukraine has in recent days responded in kind, targeting Russian energy infrastructure with drone strikes while pounding towns in Belgorod with artillery.
US President Donald Trump, who claims he wants to be remembered as a peacemaker, has repeatedly said he wants the three-year conflict in Ukraine to end and is pushing both sides to agree to a truce.
But Putin said last month that fighting could not be paused until a number of crucial conditions around the US-proposed ceasefire were worked out or clarified.
‘President Putin does support the idea of the need for a ceasefire, but before that a number of questions must be answered,’ Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters last week.
‘These questions are still hanging in the air, so far no one has given an answer to them.’
Putin has said that any peace agreement must address what Moscow sees as the root causes of the conflict – essentially a tug of war between Russia and the West over Ukraine’s future and the post-Soviet enlargement of NATO towards Russia’s borders.
Putin has said the ceasefire would have to ensure that Ukraine did not simply use it to regroup, and that key questions about verification of a truce would need to be clarified.