Ukraine's forces are were expecting Moscow's counteroffensive in Russia's Kursk region. This is what President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his first comment on the pushback of Kiev's forces this week - more than a month after the Ukrainian invasion, reports "Reuters".
Ukraine's troops seized territory from western Russia in a surprise raid that began in early August, a move aimed at seizing the battlefield initiative from Russia, including by diverting Moscow's forces from the eastern front.
Her forces made quick initial gains, but against this backdrop, the situation around the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, which has been at the center of Russia's main offensive operations in recent weeks, remains dangerous.
"The Russians launched a counteroffensive. This is going according to our Ukrainian plan," Zelensky pointed out at a press conference in Kyiv with Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda.
Yesterday, a Russian commander announced that his soldiers had regained control of about 10 settlements in the Kursk region in a counterattack.
Zelensky repeated earlier claims that Ukraine had seen a build-up of forces across the border with Belarus - Russia's main ally in its war.
"We have been watching it for a long time - this process is under control,", he reported.
Battles continue on several fronts.
Russian shelling killed three Ukrainians working for the International Committee of the Red and wounded two others in a village in the frontline Donetsk region.
In addition, Russian forces cut off the power and water supply to a railway junction in northern Ukraine, as well as the water supply to Pokrovsk.
More than 2.5 years since its beginning, the war in Ukraine is at a critical moment - Moscow regularly strikes Ukrainian infrastructure, while its troops try to take over the entire eastern region of Ukraine - Donbass.
Ukraine has also launched massive drone attacks against Russia, targeting its oil refineries and other strategic facilities.
Washington claims Iran has supplied hundreds of ballistic missiles to Russia. Moscow, on the other hand, warned the West not to give the green light to strikes deep into Russian territory with Western weapons, threatening a response.
Russian forces are gaining ground in parts of eastern Ukraine, including the region around Pokrovsk, the capture of which could allow Moscow to open new lines of attack and complicate Ukrainian logistics.
The regional governor of Donetsk said a filtration station had stopped working due to heavy fighting, cutting off Pokrovsk's water supply. He indicated that it would be impossible to repair it soon and again called on civilians to leave the city.
Russian momentum has slowed in the areas closest to Pokrovsk, but Moscow's forces are advancing south of this line of attack, closing in on the nearby city of Ukrainsk.
The town of Konotop, a railway junction in Sumy Oblast that Kiev is using as a springboard for its cross-border incursion, reported heavy damage from a Russian drone attack overnight.
Local authorities informed that at least 14 people were injured in an attack that "significantly" damaged the energy infrastructure and cut off electricity in the settlement.
Across Ukraine, Russia has attacked with 64 drones, with 44 of them downed in nine different regions.