President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged for the first time on Saturday that Ukrainian forces were fighting in Russia’s Kursk region and said the operation was part of Kyiv’s drive to restore justice after Russia’s 2022 invasion.

Russia said Ukrainian forces pushed into Kursk region last Tuesday and Russian military bloggers have acknowledged they made some headway, while saying the situation had since stabilised.

Zelensky had previously stayed silent about the operation.

In his nightly video address, the president said he had discussed the operation with top Ukrainian commander Oleksandr Syrskyi, while not forgetting the battles troops face on the difficult eastern front.

“Today, I received several reports from commander-in-chief Syrskyi regarding the front lines and our actions to push the war onto the aggressor’s territory,” he said.

“I am grateful to every unit of the defence forces for ensuring that. Ukraine is proving that it can indeed restore justice and ensure the necessary pressure on the aggressor.”

Zelensky had previously alluded to the operation, praising the military’s ability “to surprise” and thanking them for taking Russian soldiers prisoner to be used in future negotiations, specifically referring to the past week.

In paying tribute to Ukrainian forces along the 1,000-km (600-mile) front line, Zelensky made special mention of actions in northern Sumy region, across the border from Russia’s Kursk region.

Russia has stepped up its attacks of guided bombs and other aerial strikes in Sumy, prompting mass evacuations.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Police experts work near a crater at the site of hospital buildings damaged by a Russian missile strike as people watch, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kharkiv, Ukraine April 27, 2024.
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

Russia launched a barrage of missiles against Ukraine overnight, in attacks that appeared to target the country’s energy infrastructure. Meanwhile, Russia said its air defense systems had intercepted more than 60 Ukrainian drones over the southern Krasnodar region.

Ukraine’s air force said April 27 that Russia had launched 34 missiles against Ukraine overnight, of which 21 had been shot down by Ukrainian air defenses.

In a post on Telegram, Minister of Energy Herman Halushchenko said energy facilities in Dnipropetrovsk in the south of the country and Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv in the west had been attacked and that an engineer was injured.

Private energy operator DTEK said four of its thermal power plants were damaged and that there were “casualties,” without going into detail.

Earlier this month Russia destroyed one of Ukraine’s largest power plants and damaged others in a massive missile and drone attack as it renewed its push to target Ukraine’s energy facilities.

Ukraine has appealed to its Western allies for more air defense systems to ward off such attacks. At a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group on April 26, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced the U.S. will provide Ukraine with additional munitions and gear for its air defense launchers.

Further east, a psychiatric hospital was damaged and one person was wounded after Russia launched a missile attack overnight on Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv. Photos from the scene showed a huge crater on the grounds of the facility and patients taking shelter in corridors. Regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said a 53-year-old woman was hurt.

Also in the Kharkiv region, a man was killed in an overnight attack on the city of Vovchansk, according to Ukraine’s State Service for Emegency Situations.

In Russia, the Defense Ministry said Russian air defense systems had intercepted 66 drones over the country’s southern Krasnodar region. Two more drones were shot down over the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula.

The governor of the Krasnodar region, Veniamin Kondratyev, said that Ukrainian forces targeted an oil refinery and infrastructure facilities but that there were no casualties or serious damage. The regional department of the Emergency Situations Ministry reported that a fire broke out at the Slavyansk oil refinery in Slavyansk-on-Kuban during the attack.

Ukrainian officials normally decline to comment on attacks on Russian soil, but the Ukrainian Energy Ministry said April 27 that two oil refineries in the Krasnodar region had been hit by drones.

Five people were wounded in a drone attack in a border village in Russia’s Belgorod region, regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said.