Zelensky confirms the presence of Ukrainian troops in the Russian region of Belgorod
Ukraine controls a 13-kilometer area and seeks to delay a new Putin offensive, key to negotiations.
MoscowIt's not just Vladimir Putin who is trying to sit down at a potential negotiating table with the best cards., also Volodymyr Zelensky. Ukraine admitted for the first time since the war began that it is fighting in the Russian region of Belgorod. "We continue to conduct active operations in the border areas of the enemy's territory, and that is absolutely correct: the war must return to where it came from," Zelensky said Monday night.
Belgorod is a region bordering Ukraine, located north of Kursk, and is routinely subjected to airstrikes. Already in May 2023, a group of opposition fighters under Putin's regime, the Russian Freedom Legion and the Russian Volunteer Corps, who fight alongside Ukraine, had briefly penetrated this territory. On March 18, The Russian Ministry of Defense revealed an attempted Ukrainian incursion in that area., but Kiev didn't confirm it. Now it has. According to Zelensky, the objective of this operation is to force Moscow to divert troops from the Ukrainian regions of Sumi and Kharkiv. Kiev also claims that this type of offensive helps relieve pressure on the Donbas front.
The territorial gains made by Ukrainian troops in Belgorod are not particularly significant in absolute terms. According to the DeepState military monitoring project, They control an area of about 13 square kilometers near the Russian border village of DemidovkaNow, the strategy of forcing the Russian army to redistribute forces does work. Military analyst Ian Matveyev explains, based on comments from Russian war correspondents, that Moscow has recently had to deploy new brigades. "The Belgorod front has been holding for three weeks and is helping the Ukrainian armed forces delay the start of a large-scale Russian offensive in the Sumi region," Matveyev notes. This delay in Moscow's plans also deprives the Russian president of another ace up his sleeve in the negotiations: the Kremlin hopes to exchange any new portion of Ukrainian territory for those parts of the constitutionally annexed provinces it does not yet control.
It is also no coincidence that the raid on Belgorod took place in mid-March., when Ukrainian soldiers were retreating from Kursk. Breaking through the Russian border at another point once again complicated Putin's goal of reaching peace talks while controlling all Russian territory. Furthermore, as with the invasion of Kursk in August, Ukraine was able to repel Russian artillery from its villages.
Over the past two weeks, the situation on this stretch of the front has not changed significantly. Russian bloggers acknowledge the Ukrainian presence near the villages of Popovka and Demidovka, without going into too many details, beyond stating that Moscow's troops are carrying out "assault and clearing" operations against enemy positions. The Kremlin also has not commented on the situation in Belgorod. This Tuesday, spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on the situation despite questions from journalists.
The Kursk outcome
The Russian government is trying to focus all media attention on the recapture of the last settlements in Kursk. The Ministry of Defense continues to anticipate the final expulsion of Ukrainian soldiers from the region, which has yet to be completed. This Tuesday, they announced the conquest of the last major village controlled by Kiev, Guevo, 1.5 kilometers from the Ukrainian border.
The prospect of peace talks has spurred both sides on the ground, to the frustration of Donald Trump.. The US president recently lamented the Russian missile launches against Ukrainian cities over the weekend. "I'm not happy with what's happening because they're being bombed like crazy right now," Trump said, referring to the attack that left 20 dead, nine of them children, and at least 75 injured in Kriví Rih.
Despite this and the anger that emerged over Putin's proposal for an internationally supervised government in Ukraine, the US president has not retaliated against the Russian president. In fact, contacts between the two countries continued this Thursday to resume diplomatic relations. The Russian ambassador to Washington, Aleksander Darchiev, and the US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs, Sonata Coulter, are leading two delegations that will meet in Istanbul. No progress is expected on the ceasefire in Ukraine. A similar meeting took place on February 27, but its results were not made public.