Zelenski confirms Ukraine troops active in the Russian region of Belgorod

Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski publicly acknowledged for the first time that his troops are active in the Belgorod region in Russia.

“We continue to carry out active operations in the border areas of the enemy, and this is absolutely fair – the war must return to where it came from,” he said on Monday.

His comments also referred to the Russian Kursk region, where Ukraine still holds a small area after a major offensive last year. Since then, Moscow has taken over the bigger part of the territory.

Zelenski said that the “main goal” is to protect the border areas of Ukraine and the border areas of Harkiv and to “relieve the pressure” on other parts of the huge front line, especially in the eastern region of Donetsk.

The Russian military last month reported the Ukrainian attempts to cross the Belgorod area – but they said such attacks had been rejected.

Russian President Vladimir Putin began a full -scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and Moscow currently controls about 20% of the territory of Ukraine.

In his video late on Monday, Zelenski said he was informed by his best commander, Gen Olexander Sirski, about the situation on the front, “including our presence in the Kursk and Belgorod regions.”

Zelenski thanked several army units defending Ukraine, including the 225th attack, located in the Belgorod area.

“Bravo, boys! I’m proud of anyone who fights for Ukraine!” said the president.

He did not provide more details. This is his first explicit recognition of Ukrainian troops in Belgorod.

On March 18, Zelenski indirectly confirmed that Ukrainian troops were there.

“There is surgery there,” he said when he was asked by reporters to comment on a statement from the Russian Ministry of Defense that Ukrainian troops are unsuccessfully trying to enter the western part of the Belgorod region.

Russia had said that all Ukrainian attempts to move to the villages of Demidovka and Blesses were rejected and a cross -border raid was prevented.

However, several Russian military bloggers at the time reported that they were fighting in the demidovka itself, located about two kilometers (1.2 miles) from the Ukrainian border.

The US -based War Study Institute (ISW) also said in an update on March 21 that “Ukrainian forces have recently advanced in Belgorod.”

“Russian Milbloggers claim that the Ukrainian forces advanced and consolidated positions on the outskirts of demidovka and fittings,” ISW said, adding that such claims were unconfirmed.

In the last two days, Russian military bloggers have announced that the Ukrainian forces have been withdrawing from the Demidovka region.

It is believed that Ukraine’s operation in Belgorod is on a much smaller scale than his actions in Kursk, where Kiev at one point seized a number of villages, including the regional city of Suja.

Zelenski and his senior commanders have repeatedly said that such invasions have forced Moscow to redistribute troops from the Donetsk region, where Russian troops are stable – albeit slow – progress in recent months.

Ukraine can also hope to exchange the Russian areas it owns for parts of the Ukrainian regions occupied by Moscow in all future peace talks that are pushed by the United States.

A number of war analysts – both in Ukraine and in the West – have questioned the military expediency of Kiev’s operations on Russian soil, pointing to the reported major combat casualties and difficulties with arms supplies.