President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukrainian forces continued to make progress in Russia’s Kursk region after launching a major cross-border offensive 11 days ago that surprised the Kremlin’s military leadership and changed the dynamics of the 30-month war.

Following an update from Ukraine’s top military commander, Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskiy, Zelensky said in a Telegram post on August 17 that Ukraine had “strengthened” its positions in the Kursk region and stabilized more areas under its control.

Ukrainian forces have penetrated deep into Russian territory after crossing the border in a surprise attack on August 6 and capturing dozens of settlements.

The surprise incursion came as Russia continues to advance in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk and appears to strengthen Kyiv’s position in future peace talks.

WATCH: Ukrainian troops near the city of Toretsk believe Russia will have to shift its resources back to its own territory, but so far they see no easing of fighting.

Russia claims to have annexed four Ukrainian regions – Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia – in addition to the Crimean peninsula. If Ukraine can continue to hold parts of Kursk and neighboring Russian regions, it may try to exchange them for the allegedly annexed regions, experts say.

The Kremlin has been embarrassed by the incursion, the first foreign occupation of its territory since World War II, and has accused NATO of helping Ukraine plan the attack, a charge Washington denies.

The Kremlin, which portrays the war as a war between Russia and the West, has repeatedly hinted at escalation, which analysts say is an attempt to intimidate Washington into refraining from supplying Ukraine with powerful weapons such as long-range precision missiles and F-16 fighter jets.

As Ukrainian forces continued their surprise advance on Kursk, the Russian Foreign Ministry accused Ukraine of using American-made long-range missiles to destroy a key bridge in the Glushkov district of the Kursk region, killing “volunteers” who had helped evacuate civilians.

“For the first time, the Kursk region was hit by Western-made rocket launchers, probably the US HIMARS type,” said ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on the evening of August 16.

According to Russian security officials, the destruction of the bridge has cut off part of the district from the outside world, making it difficult to evacuate civilians from the region. According to Russian authorities, the Ukrainian incursion has so far led to the evacuation of more than 120,000 civilians.

By comparison, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has forced up to seven million Ukrainians to flee. Russia has also killed thousands of civilians through drone and missile attacks on non-military targets such as residential buildings, shopping malls and train stations.

Kyiv claims to have taken control of 82 settlements covering an area of ​​1,150 square kilometers since its surprise border crossing on August 6.

According to officials in Washington, the United States currently views the invasion as a defensive measure that justifies the use of American weapons.

Yet Ukraine remains subject to Western restrictions on Russia’s deployment of certain weapons systems, including long-range missiles such as the US ATACMS. The Biden administration views Russia’s deployment of ATACS as escalatory. There is no indication from Western capitals that Ukraine has violated these rules during the course of the war.

The Times of London reported on August 17 that the United States is also preventing Britain from supplying its powerful long-range Storm Shadow cruise missiles. Britain made a request to the United States more than a month ago but has not yet received a response, the newspaper said. reported.

In a later post the same day, Zelensky expressed regret over the UK’s restrictions on the use of Storm Shadows. Saying The ability to carry out long-range attacks “is really a matter of principle for us.” The Storm Shadow, which has a payload of 400 kilograms, can destroy targets more than 300 kilometers away. Kiev wants to use it to attack Russian air bases that host fighter jets that bomb Ukrainian troops and cities.

“It is critical that our partners remove the barriers that prevent us from weakening Russian positions in the way this war requires. Long-range capabilities are the answer to the most critical strategic questions of this war,” he wrote.

Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on August 16 called on Washington and London to allow Ukraine to attack Russian territory with ATACMS and Storm Shadow missiles.

There was another setback for Ukraine, according to a report in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung on August 17, which stated that Germany had stopped any new financial and military aid to Ukraine for budgetary reasons.

In a letter dated August 5 to Defense Minister Boris Pistorius and Foreign Minister Annalena Berbock, which was seen by the news agency, Finance Minister Christian Lindner stated that new aid allocations could only be made if financing was guaranteed.

“Starting today, Olaf Scholz and the coalition government he leads are freezing financial and thus military support for Ukraine,” Ingo Gadehens of the opposition Christian Democrats told the news channel.

Previously promised aid will be provided. In the future, funds for Ukraine will be provided from the profits generated by frozen Russian assets, the portal reported.

Energy plants in sight

Meanwhile, on August 17, the Russian Defense Ministry accused Ukraine of planning an attack on the Kursk nuclear power plant and blamed Moscow for the attack.

In the event of such a “provocation,” Russia will react harshly, the Interfax news agency quoted the ministry as saying.

Meanwhile, Russian-appointed officials at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine said on August 17 that a Ukrainian drone had dropped an explosive device on a road outside the plant, endangering personnel traveling on that road.

Moscow and Kyiv have repeatedly accused each other of sabotaging the operation of the power plant. The plant was occupied by Russia shortly after it began its large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Last week, Zelensky accused Russia of causing a fire in a cooling tower at the plant. Russian officials said Kyiv was deliberately trying to destroy the plant and spread “nuclear terror.”

Non-nuclear energy facilities were attacked by both sides during the war: Russia damaged half of Ukraine’s power plants and Ukraine damaged more than a dozen Russian refineries, some of them more than once.

Kyiv and Moscow were supposed to hold “indirect talks” in Doha next week about stopping attacks on energy infrastructure. However, the talks were postponed due to the Kursk invasion, the Washington Post reported on August 17, citing people familiar with the developments.

Russia plans further evacuations

Ukrainian forces damaged another bridge over the Seim River on August 17, limiting Russia’s ability to supply its troops south of the river. Another road bridge and a pontoon bridge remain in place but have come under Ukrainian fire.

To strengthen its position in Kursk, Ukraine is trying to capture the town of Korenevo, south of the river.

Earlier this week, Ukraine announced the capture of Sudzha, a town of 5,000 that was the largest town to fall in the attack so far. Korenevo is slightly larger.

Zelensky said Ukraine would set up a command office in Sudzha to coordinate aid and military affairs.

Russian forces have so far struggled to respond effectively to the incursion, which is widely seen as a major morale boost for Ukraine.

Ukrainian forces have already captured hundreds of Russian soldiers, whom Kiev wants to use for a prisoner exchange, Zelensky said on August 17.

“As of this morning, our country’s ‘exchange fund’ has been replenished. I thank all our soldiers and commanders who are capturing Russian military personnel and thus advancing the release of our warriors and civilians held by Russia,” he posted on social media.

Authorities in the Russian region of Belgorod, bordering Ukraine and Kursk, have announced that they will evacuate five villages starting next week.

“Starting August 19, we are blocking access to five settlements, evacuating residents and helping them to take out their property,” regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov announced on Telegram.

WATCH: There was skepticism in the Ukrainian border town of Sumy when locals were asked about government plans to accept refugees from Russia’s Kursk region.

Russian attack, hacker attack on Ukraine

To repel the Ukrainian forces in Kursk, Russia continued its bombing campaign against Ukraine.

In the northeastern region of Sumy, at least two people were injured in a Russian missile attack early on August 17, according to emergency services.

The rocket hit a parking lot near a high-rise apartment building, setting at least 10 vehicles on fire. Windows of nearby buildings were shattered and facades damaged, Ukrainian officials said.

Overnight, Ukrainian air defenses shot down all 14 Russian drones launched in a nighttime attack, the Ukrainian Air Force said. said in a statement early on August 17.

The Shahed drones were shot down over six Ukrainian regions in the south and center of the country, including areas near the capital Kyiv, according to the opinion posted on Telegram.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian secret service announced that its cyber specialists, together with the hacker group VO Team, had succeeded in infiltrating the Internet provider of a company that is part of the Russian nuclear weapons program.

In a statement on August 17, the directorate said it had hacked the Chelyabinsk Internet provider Vega, whose clients include the All-Russian Research Institute of Technical Physics, and disabled 1,173 switches and 10 servers.

“The information on the Vega servers was destroyed. Several strategic enterprises in the city were without Internet and communication services for almost a week,” the secret service reported.

RFE/RL could not confirm the information.

With reporting from the Ukrainian and Russian services of RFE/RL