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Ukraine said Thursday its military has taken full control of the Russian town of Sudzha in the Kursk region, the largest town Ukraine has seized so far in its incursion into Russian territory.
In a statement posted to his official account on X, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he was informed by Ukrainian military Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi of the "successful liberation" of Sudzha from Russian forces.
"A Ukrainian military commandant's office is being established there," Zelenskyy added. He said more than 80 Russian settlements have been "liberated," and an area of 1,150 square kilometers seized so far during the 10-day Ukrainian incursion.
Sudzha is about 9.6 kilometers inside Russia from the Ukraine border and had a pre-war population of about 5,000 people. It is the site of the Russian pipeline infrastructure in which gas flows for distribution to Europe.
There were no reports of any interruption of gas deliveries into Europe since the town was seized.
Russia did not immediately respond to Zelenskyy's statement, but its defense ministry said earlier Thursday that Russian forces had blocked Ukrainian attempts to take several other communities.
In an exclusive interview with British newspaper The Independent, top Zelenskyy adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said the incursion is being seen as a "psychological" tactic to force Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table and end the war.
Podolyak said Ukraine believes "inflicting significant tactical defeats on Russia, in addition to economic and diplomatic tools," are needed to coerce Russia to negotiate.
Analysts had also suggested the incursion was designed to draw Russian troops away from front-line conflicts.
During a telephone briefing with reporters on Thursday, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. had observed some Russian units being redirected from operations in and around Ukraine to the Kursk area, but he stressed that those were merely early reports.
Kirby added that he was not in the position to speak for Ukrainian military operations or for what Ukraine's intent or ultimate objective might be.
Russian officials Wednesday announced the evacuation of 20,000 more people, as Ukrainian troops continued their push into the Kursk region.
Kursk Acting Governor Alexei Smirnov said on the Telegram messaging app that police and other authorities would coordinate the evacuation of the Glushkov district, which borders Ukraine.
Russia has evacuated nearly 200,000 people since Ukraine launched its cross-border attack August 6.
Ukrainian military commander General Oleksandr Syrskyi said that more than 100 Russian soldiers were taken prisoner. Zelenskyy said they would eventually be traded for Ukrainian prisoners of war.
In his nightly address on Wednesday, Zelenskyy said the advance in the Kursk region was going well, and added, "The 'exchange fund' for our state has also been significantly replenished."
"It is important that Ukraine fights by the rules, and the humanitarian needs that exist in this area must be met," he added.
Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said the military would open humanitarian corridors so civilians in the Kursk region under Ukrainian control could go elsewhere in Russia or Ukraine.
"The more the Russian military presence in the border area is destroyed, the closer peace and real security will be for our country," Zelenskyy said on Tuesday. "The Russian state must be held accountable for what it has done."
While Kyiv has said it has no intention of permanently holding the Russian territory, Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said Ukraine wants to create a buffer zone to prevent Russian strikes.
"The creation of a buffer zone in the Kursk region is a step to protect our border communities from daily hostile shelling," he said.
Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
The Voice of America provides news and information in more than 40 languages to an estimated weekly audience of over 326 million people. Stories with the VOA News byline are the work of multiple VOA journalists and may contain information from wire service reports.