The surprise Ukrainian invasion of Russia’s Kursk region is intended to create a “buffer zone” between the two countries and further complicate Moscow’s cross-border offensive, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday.

“It is now our primary task in defensive operations overall to destroy as much Russian war potential as possible and conduct maximum counteroffensive actions,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly address, the first public acknowledgment of the offensive’s true intent. 

“This includes creating a buffer zone on the aggressor’s territory – our operation in the Kursk region,” Zelenskyy continued.

Ukrainian forces destroyed one bridge in the region this weekend and struck a second in a bid to disrupt Russian supply lines. Pro-Kremlin war bloggers have since acknowledged that the former strike, which targeted a bridge on the Seim River near the village of Glushkovo, Russia, was successful. The location and efficacy of the second attack were not specified as of Sunday morning.

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The reported strikes’ effect on Russian infrastructure further complicates a situation that has already placed Moscow on an unexpected defensive, forcing it to re-evaluate its strategy along Ukraine’s northeastern border, which is a region that was largely written off as insignificant to the conflict just months after it began in 2022.

“The Ukrainian operation in Kursk Oblast [has forced] a decision-point on the Kremlin and the Russian military command about whether to view the 1,000 kilometer-long international border with northeastern Ukraine as a legitimate front line that Russia must defend,” the Institute for the Study of War’s George Barros previously told Fox News Digital.

This infographic was created in Ankara, Turkey, on Aug. 8, 2024. On Aug. 6, the Ukrainian army launched a full-scale assault on Russia’s southern Kursk region, creating a new front in the conflict. (Murat Usubali/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“Russia has spent considerable resources to build fortifications along the international border area,” Barros noted, “but has not allocated the manpower and [matériel] to significantly man and defend those fortifications.”

Ukraine has claimed roughly 400 square miles of Russian territory since launching the operation on Aug. 6.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said the military incursion into Russia’s Kursk region aims to create a buffer zone to prevent further attacks by Moscow across the border.

It was the first time Zelenskyy clearly stated the aim of the operation, which was launched on August 6.

“Today, we achieved good and much-needed results in destroying Russian equipment near Toretsk. And all this is more than just defence for Ukraine, it is now our primary task in defensive operations overall – to destroy as much Russian war potential as possible and conduct maximum counteroffensive actions,” Zelenskyy said.

He also used his nightly video address to appeal to international allies to speed up deliveries of military hardware for the battlefield.

“There is a need for faster delivery of supplies from our partners. We strongly ask for this. There are no vacations in war. Decisions are needed, as is timely logistics for the announced aid packages. I especially address this to the United States, the United Kingdom and France,” he said.

Zelenskyy’s comments come on the same day the Ukrainian military released footage showing what it said was the destruction of a key bridge in Kursk, the second such bridge struck in less than two weeks.

Destroying the bridges would disrupt Russian supply routes and might signal that Ukraine’s troops intend to dig in.

Russia’s pro-Kremlin military bloggers have acknowledged the destruction of the first bridge which spanned the Seim River near the town of Glushkovo.  

Russian officials haven’t given the exact location of the second bridge but Telegram channels claimed that it also spans the Seim river in the village of Zvannoe.

The daring Ukrainian military incursion into Kursk has seen Kyiv’s forces seize several villages, take hundreds of prisoners and force the evacuation of tens of thousands of civilians in what has become the largest attack on Russia since World War II.

In more than a week of fighting, Russian troops are still struggling to drive out Ukraine’s forces.

Kyiv also hopes that the operation will change the dynamic of the more than two-year-old conflict.

But Ukrainian officials have repeatedly said that the aim of the operation is not to occupy Russia.

“Ukraine is not interested in occupying Russian territories,” one of Zelenskyy’s senior aides, Mykhailo Podolyak, said on X on Friday.

“In the Kursk region, we can clearly see how the military tool is being used objectively to persuade Russia to enter a fair negotiation process,” he said.