Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on September 12 that Ukraine anticipated the recent Russian military attacks that have taken place in the Kursk region.
"The Russians have begun counteroffensive actions. This is according to our Ukrainian plan," Zelenskiy told a news conference in Kyiv with Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda.
The comment was Zelenskiy’s first since Russia began attacks this week on Ukrainian forces in Kursk more than a month after Kyiv's surprise incursion into the region.
Pro-Moscow war bloggers and Ukrainian military analysts said on September 11 that Russian forces had begun attacking the western flank of Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region and had retaken some territory.
The same information has been shared by the Rybar channel, which is connected to the Russian Defense Ministry, and a Russian commander fighting in Kursk claimed that Russian troops had gone on the offensive and taken back control of about 10 settlements.
SEE ALSO: Russian Forces Reportedly Attack Ukrainian Troops In Kursk, Claim Recapture Of Some VillagesUkrainian forces began their incursion into Kursk in early August, a move that was believed to be aimed at diverting Moscow's forces from the eastern Donbas region and at taking the fight to the Russians.
Kyiv claims to have seized control of more than 1,200 square kilometers of Russian territory, and according to Ukraine’s top military commander, Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskiy, Moscow has transferred tens of thousands of troops to the region.
While Ukrainian forces made rapid gains at the start of the incursion, the situation around the eastern Ukrainian town of Pokrovsk, which Russia has been seeking to take for weeks, remains perilous.
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At the news conference with Nauseda, Zelenskiy reiterated earlier assertions that Ukraine had also noticed a buildup of forces across Ukraine’s border with Belarus.
"We have seen it for a long time -- this process is under control," he said.
His comments came as Russian shelling killed three Ukrainians working for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and injured two others in a village in the Donetsk region, according to Ukrainian officials.
Russian forces also knocked out power and water to a rail hub in northern Ukraine and severed water supplies to Pokrovsk. Donetsk's regional governor said a filtering station had stopped working because of heavy fighting, and it would be impossible to fix soon. He renewed calls for civilians to flee the town.
To the north in the Sumy region, the city of Konotop, a rail hub that Kyiv used as a staging ground for its cross-border incursion, reported heavy damage from an overnight Russian drone attack.
Local officials said at least 14 people had been hurt in the attack, which "significantly" damaged energy infrastructure and cut electricity to the settlement.