The Kursk operation is Ukraine's right of self-defense, Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braze said ahead of an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Aug. 29.
As Kyiv's incursion into Kursk Oblast entered its fourth week, Ukraine is in control of 1,294 square kilometers (around 500 square miles) and 100 settlements, including the town of Sudzha, Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Aug. 27. The Kyiv Independent could not verify these claims.
According to Braze, Ukraine's right of self-defense is covered by Article 51 of the U.N. Charter the UN Charter includes Kyiv's right to strike at military targets on Russian soil.
"And Ukrainians have been very, very careful and very, very diligent in not going after civilians (in Kursk Oblast), in not doing what Russians have been doing on the Ukrainian territory," the minister said.
"This is the normal military counteractions, so this counteroffensive, in our view, is also covered by the right of self-defense."
Moscow has redeployed about 30,000 of its troops from other sectors to the Kursk direction, "and this number is growing," Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Aug. 27. At the same time, Russia deployed its most combat-ready units in the Pokrovsk sector, he added.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the ongoing Kursk incursion is one part of a plan for victory that he would present to U.S. President Joe Biden during a meeting in September.
The Kyiv Independent news desk
(Updated: )
