Ukraine has captured 594 POWs so far during its incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, Kyiv’s chief commander Oleksandr Syrskyi said Tuesday.
The top general claimed that the surprise operation, ongoing for three weeks now, has managed to distract a “significant number of Russian soldiers.”
“As of now we can say the Kremlin has sent some 30,000 soldiers from other directions to Kursk, and their number is growing,” Syrskyi added during a forum in Kyiv on Tuesday. “At the same time the enemy has been trying to avoid diverting forces from Pokrovsk, where it has increased its military push.”
Russian forces have been gaining ground in Ukraine’s Donetsk region around Pokrovsk, even as Ukraine’s special military operation inside Russia has seen it capture swathes of territory, towns and villages. Ukraine’s goal in Kursk, Syrskyi added, is to divert Russian forces from other areas of the front line, in particular from Pokrovsk and Kurakhove.
“As of today, we took control over 1,294 square kilometers territory there [in Kursk], 100 settlements,” Syrskyi said. “Also because of our forces’ successful actions, we managed to increase our exchange fund, as of today we took 594 prisoners of war in this direction.”
This is the first time that a Ukrainian official has disclosed the number of POWs captured.
“As you know Russia had been shelling our territories from Kursk, causing numerous casualties among locals,” Syrskyi explained. “So, with the goal to stop the shooting, create the security zone, protection of our civilian population, soldiers and infrastructure, and also to conduct as pre-emptive operation against the enemy who was amassing forces near our Sumy region, we decided to go into Kursk.”