Reuters. Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said on Thursday (August 8) that Russia’s aggression was the reason for any escalation, including events in Russia’s Kursk and Belgorod regions.

 

“The root cause of any escalation, shelling, military actions, forced evacuations, and destruction of normal life forms, including within (Russia’s) own territories like Kursk and Belgorod regions, is solely Russia’s unequivocal aggression,” Podolyak wrote on X in English.

 

Russia said that the Ukrainian forces had penetrated its southern border on Tuesday in one of the largest incursions into Russian territory since the start of the war.

 

Ukrainian military and top leadership had not commented on the events in Kursk region. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said pressure on Russia was key for peace in his Wednesday evening address.

 

“The more pressure we put on Russia – the aggressor that brought war to Ukraine – the closer peace will be. A just peace through just force,” said Zelenskiy.

 

Speaking on national television on Wednesday evening, Podolyak said that Russia will not react to “any proposals” before it receives “appropriate, aggressive retaliatory strikes.”

 

More than 29 months since the start of the full-scale war, Russia has been using its border regions for artillery and guided bomb attacks against Ukraine.

 

Podolyak said that Ukraine could impede this strategy by either pushing the Russian military infrastructure further from its border or by relying on the systemic use of long-range weapons — subject to restrictions by Ukraine’s Western allies.

 

“By means of direct operations, operations of a forceful nature, due to the fact that Russia is absolutely not ready to defend its territories, you are pushing back and securing this sanitary border or a sanitary zone,” Podolyak said.

 

The presidential advisor refused to comment on specific developments in Kursk oblast, saying that only the military can comment on operational and tactical details of events there.