Zelensky said that the Russian counteroffensive had long been expected and was planned for.
From: Washington Post By Anastacia Galouchka and Lizzie Johnson
KYIV — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced Thursday that Russia had launched a counteroffensive to take back the parts of its Kursk region occupied by Ukrainian forces last month.
The president also said that three staff members from the International Committee of the Red Cross were killed when their vehicles were hit by Russian shelling in the eastern Donetsk region.
Speaking at a news conference with the Lithuanian president, Zelensky said that the Russian “counteroffensive actions were according to our Ukrainian plan.”
He declined to say anything more about the region, which Ukraine overtook during a surprise incursion in early August. Zelensky has stated before that Kursk — where Ukraine grabbed about 500 square miles, including 100 settlements and nearly 600 prisoners of war — was part of his plan to end the conflict.
In the past two days, though, the Russian Defense Ministry said that its troops had reclaimed 10 settlements in the region.
Voice of Ukraine 