On Sunday, Russian forces entered the sixth day of intense fighting with Kyiv's largest attack on Russian territory since the start of the Ukraine war.

Russian authorities quickly evacuated people and imposed extensive security in three border regions on Saturday. Belarus, a close ally of Moscow, deployed more troops to its border with Ukraine, accusing Kyiv of violating its airspace.

In his evening video briefing, Mr. Zelenskiy said he discussed the operation with Ukraine's senior commander Oleksandr Syrskyi, pledging to respond proportionately to the special operation that Russia has organized since February 2022.

On Sunday, the Russian Defense Ministry said it had shot down 14 drones and four Tochka-U tactical ballistic missiles overnight in the Kursk region, and 18 drones in other areas of Russia that are frequently attacked by Ukraine.

In a statement, the ministry described the ground offensive, a plan that analysts said caught the Kremlin by surprise, as "barbaric" and militarily pointless.

Russia's top general, Valery Gerasimov, said on Wednesday that the attacks had been repelled, but Russia had not yet pushed Ukrainian forces out of its territory.

Russian military bloggers said the situation had stabilized after Russia sent in reinforcements, but they also said Ukrainian forces were also massing more troops.

Photo: REUTERS/Viacheslav Ratynskyi.

Casualties and evacuation

Earlier Sunday, Kursk officials said 13 people were injured in the city after debris from a downed Ukrainian missile hit a nine-story residential building.

An image posted by the mayor of Kursk shows flames rising from a destroyed building with charred debris surrounding it.

The full extent of the damage remains unclear. Moscow and Kyiv do not typically release full details of damage from attacks except in cases of casualties or damage to residential buildings.

Alexei Smirnov, the acting governor of Kursk, has ordered local authorities to step up evacuations of civilians in high-risk areas. On Saturday, Russia's state news agency TASS reported that more than 76,000 people had been evacuated.

Russian military bloggers say fighting is taking place up to 20km from the border in the Kursk region, leading many to question how Ukraine was able to attack so deep into Kursk so easily.

After a man and his four-year-old son were killed in an air strike near Kyiv on Sunday, Mr Zelenskiy demanded that Ukraine's Western partners "make a strong decision" to allow its forces to strike deep into Russian territory using Western weapons.

"When Ukraine's offensive range is unlimited, this war will end," he wrote on X.

Russian High Commissioner for Human Rights Tatyana Moskalkova said she had sent a petition to the UN asking the organization to condemn Ukraine's actions in Kursk.

In a Telegram post, Moskalkova said she had asked the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to "take measures to stop this serious violation of human rights".

Nguyen Quang Minh (According to Reuters)