Ukraine advances in Russia's Belgorod Oblast, Zelensky says
Ukrainian forces have advanced in Russia's Belgorod Oblast, President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed on April 19, citing a report from Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi.
Ukraine launched a small-scale offensive in Belgorod Oblast in late March, marking Kyiv's second cross-border operation in Russian territory after the August 2024 Kursk incursion.
Zelensky said on April 19 that Syrskyi briefed him on the activity of Ukrainian troops in Russia.
"Our forces continued their activity in Kursk Oblast today and are maintaining their positions. In Belgorod Oblast, our military advanced and increased our zone of control," Zelensky said.
The report comes nearly two weeks after the president confirmed the presence of Ukrainian forces in Belgorod Oblast. Zelensky on April 7 said that cross-border operations were "absolutely just" and a means of returning Russia's war "to where it came from."
Kyiv has carried out occasional cross-border raids since 2023, with a variety of Russian volunteer soldiers fighting alongside Ukrainian units. These raids were hours-long and served primarily as political operations rather than military ones.
Ukraine launched a major cross-border incursion into Kursk Oblast in August 2024, occupying Russian border territories in an attempt to divert Russian attention from front-line areas of eastern Ukraine.
While Kyiv managed to occupy parts of Kursk Oblast for seven months, Russia recaptured the logistics hub of Sudzha in March 2025 amid a counteroffensive that forced Ukrainian troops to withdraw from a substantial part of the region.
Russian military bloggers and independent analysts reported on March 29 that Ukrainian forces advanced three to four kilometers into Belgorod Oblast, engaging in battles with Russian troops.
According to geolocated footage analyzed by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a D.C.-based think tank, Ukrainian troops entered the village of Popovka, which lies near the Ukrainian border and Kursk Oblast.
Anna Fratsyvir
