Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said this evening that the offensive launched by Kiev in Russia's border Kursk region has forced Russia to transfer 40,000 troops there , France Press reported, BTA reported.
„We have already managed to attract about 40,000 Russian soldiers to this region,” Zelensky said in his daily evening video address. “Today alone, so far, Russian forces have used nearly 90 planning bombs aimed at our cities and Ukrainian positions. We will definitely answer the Russian army for this terror. In a tangible way," he said, quoted by Ukrinform.
Zelensky noted that one of the bombs fell on a nursing home in Sumy, where a rescue operation is currently underway.
„According to the current information, there were nearly 300 people in the building - over 200 patients and 60 staff. The evacuation of people continues and it is checked whether anyone is buried under the rubble. There are reports of injuries, at least one person has died. "I express my condolences," Zelensky said. He noted that Russia could not have known that this nursing home was not a military base and was not a military target.
The speaker of the lower house of the Russian parliament - the State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, said earlier today that Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory with Western weapons would lead to nuclear war and that the Russian response would be firm and with more powerful weapons, reported Reuters. Earlier in the day, the European Parliament passed a resolution calling for Kiev to be allowed to strike targets on Russian soil with Western weapons.
Volodin warned that the EP's proposal would lead to a "world war with the use of nuclear weapons". "Today, the European Parliament called on the countries of the European Union to cancel the restrictions on strikes by Kiev with long-range weapons on the territory of our country, to increase military aid to Ukraine, and also to announce the collection of funds from the population of Europe for the needs of the armed forces of Ukraine. What the European Parliament is calling for will lead to a world war with the use of nuclear weapons," wrote Volodin, quoted by TASS, on his Telegram channel. He added that Europeans should understand that Russia's RS-28 "Sarmat" strategic intercontinental ballistic missiles, known in the West as "Satan 2", only need 3 minutes and 20 seconds to reach Strasbourg.