Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has publicly acknowledged for the first time that the country’s troops are holding positions inside Russia’s Belgorod region.

In his nightly address from Kyiv, Mr Zelensky said, “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.”

He also said Ukrainian troop activity continued in Russia’s Kursk region, where incursions first took place in early August.

He added that the operations inside Russia aim to protect Ukraine’s border regions, particularly Kharkiv and Sumy.

There has been no official confirmation from the government in Moscow that Ukrainian troops were operating in Belgorod.

But the local Belgorod authorities have acknowledged military activity as parts of the region came under sustained Ukrainian fire.

Mr Zelensky said that the country’s commander in chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, briefed him directly on the operations in Belgorod and Kursk.

Russian military bloggers recently reported that Russian troops had destroyed one of its own dams with an air-dropped bomb near the village of Popovka. This was just a few hundred metres from the Ukrainian border in an apparent attempt to prevent Ukrainian armoured vehicles from advancing.

In the neighbouring Kursk region, Ukrainian forces had maintained control over parts of the territory for several months.

However, the troops had since retreated from most of Kursk.

Some Western analysts have expressed concern that cross-border incursions could drain resources from key battlefields elsewhere along the front. 

(dpa/NAN)