World
Zelenskyy says Kursk incursion to create buffer zone inside Russia
![Zelenskyy says Kursk incursion to create buffer zone inside Russia Zelenskyy says Kursk incursion to create buffer zone inside Russia](https://static.euronews.com/articles/stories/08/66/09/16/1200x675_cmsv2_44e4829b-6b49-522b-8d7b-ca7b2b62e69f-8660916.jpg)
Ukraine’s president also used his nightly video address to appeal to international allies to speed up deliveries of much-needed military hardware to the battlefield.
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.
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World
Asian stocks are mixed after Wall Street's best week of the year
Asian stocks were mixed Monday as investors ponder the upcoming meeting of the Federal Reserve, following Wall Street’s best week since November with a slight uptick in U.S. stocks Friday.
U.S. futures were higher while oil prices dropped.
Japan’s benchmark index fluctuated in morning trading. The Nikkei 225 shed 15.50 points to 38,047.17 after data showed the core machinery orders, which are used as a leading indicator of capital spending in the coming six to nine months, fell 1.7% year on year in June.
The U.S. dollar fell to 146.44 Japanese yen from 147.58 yen.
Last week, better-than-expected U.S. retail sales figures boosted market confidence and shifted sentiment regarding potential interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve in September, which could trigger a sell-off of the yen against the dollar and other major currencies. But still, the dollar-yen exchange rate has been on a downward trend over the past weeks.
“The recent turmoil in the foreign exchange market isn’t just about the Bank of Japan’s actions … other factors, like signals from the Federal Reserve about possible rate cuts, weak U.S. job market data, and broader global economic uncertainties, have also contributed to the recent turbulence,” Luca Santos, currency analyst at ACY Securities, said in a commentary.
The market’s focus is on Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will give a speech late in the week and the setting has been home to big policy announcements in the past.
Because the Fed has said its upcoming moves will depend in large part on what data reports at the time say, “it will be difficult for Powell to pre-commit to a particular trajectory at Jackson Hole,” said economists at Deutsche Bank led by Matthew Luzzetti.
But Powell could offer hints about whether the Fed is hoping to merely remove the brakes from the economy through rate cuts or give it an accelerant.
Elsewhere in Asia, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.2% to 7,988.00 and the Kospi in Seoul lost 0.2% to 2,690.83. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 1% to 17,611.77, while the Shanghai Composite was up 0.5% to 2,894.57.
Bangkok’s SET increased 0.8% after data showed the country’s gross domestic product in the second quarter increased 2.3% compared to a year earlier, driven by tourism.
On Friday, the S&P 500 rose 0.2% to 5,554.25 for a seventh straight gain and pulled back within 2% of its all-time high set last month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.2% to 40,659.76, and the Nasdaq composite added 0.2% to 17,631.72.
Treasury yields eased in the bond market following mixed reports on the U.S. economy. One showed homebuilders broke ground on fewer projects last month than forecast, which threw some cold water on the market. Optimism had been rising earlier in the week following a flurry of better-than-expected reports on everything from inflation to sales at U.S. retailers.
But a report later in the morning suggested U.S. consumers are feeling better about the economy than expected. That’s a big deal for Wall Street because their spending makes up the bulk of the economy.
Even though confidence rose in the economy’s strength following the strong run of reports, it is still likely slowing under the weight of high interest rates.
The question is whether the slowdown in growth will overshoot and become a recession. The hope on Wall Street is that an expected cut to interest rates at the Fed’s next meeting in September will help forestall that.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 3.88% from 3.92% late Thursday. The two-year yield, which more closely tracks expectations for Fed action, fell to 4.05% from 4.10% late Thursday.
In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude gave up 16 cents to $75.38 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, lost 15 cents to $79.53 a barrel.
The euro has been strengthening against the U.S. dollar. On Monday, it cost $1.1040, inching up from $1.1028.
___
AP Business Writer Stan Choe contributed to this report.
World
Kursk invasion intended to create Russo-Ukrainian 'buffer zone,' Zelenskyy says
![Kursk invasion intended to create Russo-Ukrainian 'buffer zone,' Zelenskyy says Kursk invasion intended to create Russo-Ukrainian 'buffer zone,' Zelenskyy says](https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/08/ukraine.jpg)
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.
PUTIN SCRAMBLES AS UKRAINE ADVANCES TROOPS ALONG ‘DORMANT FRONT’ IN BORDER SECURITY OPERATION
Inset image shows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy over the reported site of a successful strike on a Russian bridge serving as a key supply route for forces in the country’s Kursk Oblast. (Ukrainian Presidency/Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)
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.
![Kursk invasion map](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/08/1200/675/kursk-8.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
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.
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