Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that his forces had begun to push back Ukrainian forces that had been advancing for weeks in the Kursk region in western Ukraine, while Kiev said its forces had repelled Russian attacks in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.

Putin added - in a speech he delivered during the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok - that the Russian army is gradually expelling Ukrainian forces from Kursk.

He added that the Ukrainian incursion did not succeed in slowing the advance of its forces in the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, but rather weakened Kyiv's defenses and allowed Russian forces to accelerate the attack in the Donbas region, which includes the Donetsk and Luhansk provinces, large parts of which are controlled by Russia.

The Russian President also said that his forces had succeeded in advancing towards the city of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine, and considered that its attack could not be contained on this front, renewing his insistence on controlling the entire Donbas region.

On the 6th of last month, Ukrainian forces suddenly began an unprecedented incursion into the Russian Kursk region, near the border, and Moscow responded by launching violent air strikes on several regions in Ukraine.

Days ago, Ukrainian Army Commander Oleksandr Syrskyi said that one of the goals of the Kursk operation was to divert Russian forces from other areas, especially eastern Ukraine near the cities of Kurakhov and Pokrovsk, where Russian forces are approaching the latter.

For his part, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said - during an interview with the American NBC network - that his country will retain the Russian lands it has controlled because they are part of the plan for victory and ending the war, as he put it.

In this context, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg - in statements he made today in Oslo - considered that Ukraine had achieved a lot in its attack on Kursk.

Donetsk battles

In field developments, the Russian Defense Ministry said today that its forces took control of the village of Zavitny in Donetsk province, eastern Ukraine.

The ministry added that Russian defenses shot down 3 American-made ATACMS missiles, 5 French-made guided bombs, and 27 drones.

In the same context, Russian media reported that the army bombed a strategic bridge used by Ukrainian forces in the city of Pokrovsk.

Russian military maps show that the battles on this axis reached the center of the city of Novgorodovka, which is only about 10 kilometers from Pokrovsk.

Kiev has repeatedly acknowledged the difficulty of the situation in a number of areas in the east of the country, especially around Pokrovsk and Chasiv Yar.

In contrast, the Ukrainian General Staff announced that its forces had engaged in dozens of clashes with Russian forces on several fronts, noting that 6 attempts to advance towards Kramatorsk had been repelled, while attacks continued to focus on both Toretsk and Krakhovo in Donetsk.

The Ukrainian agency pointed to the escalation of Russian attacks, especially on the Kharkiv region in the north-east of the country.

In the context of the mutual shelling, the governor of the Russian Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, announced today that a civilian was killed in Ukrainian shelling of the town of Shebekino in the region located in the south of the country.

In Kiev, the emergency service said today that the death toll from a Russian missile attack on a military institute in the central city of Poltava on Tuesday had risen to 55 people after the rescue operation was completed.

New Foreign Minister

On another note, the Ukrainian parliament today approved the appointment of Andriy Sibiga-Sibha (49 years old) as a successor to the resigned Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba.

Sibiga served as ambassador, notably to Turkey between 2016 and 2021, and is considered an important figure in Ukrainian diplomacy, and is considered closer than his predecessor, the head of the presidential administration, Andriy Yermak.

The Ukrainian presidency did not explain the motives behind abandoning Kuleba, who resigned yesterday, but President Zelensky said his country "needs new momentum" after a two-and-a-half-year war with Russia.

Ukrainian MPs also approved today the appointment of Olha Stefanishyna and Oleksiy Kuleba as new deputy prime ministers, as part of the largest cabinet reshuffle since the start of the Russian-Ukrainian war in late February 2022.

The new foreign ministry leadership is not expected to significantly impact Ukrainian policy, as Zelensky and his office have been in the lead in foreign affairs since the start of the war with Russia.