Ukraine said today that it controls 500 square kilometers in Russia's Kursk region - territory that Kiev intends to use as a bargaining chip with Moscow, reported Agence France-Presse.
The agency notes that this is 200 square kilometers less than in November. “We have our own security zone on the territory of the Russian Federation [...], which covers about 500 square kilometers“, said the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army Oleksandr Syrsky on “Facebook“. This claim has not been independently verified.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said, meanwhile, that during his phone conversation with his American counterpart Donald Trump, the issue of holding elections in Ukraine was not raised, Ukrinform reported.
"This issue was not raised, (Trump) did not raise it," Zelensky told journalists during a visit to the Khmelnytskyi NPP.
As Ukrinform previously reported, at a press conference at the White House yesterday, in response to a question about whether Zelensky would stay away from the peace talks on Ukraine, Trump said he did not think so. "No, he will not, at least while he is in charge. But at some point, there will have to be elections," the US president said.
Earlier in an interview with the "Guardian" newspaper Zelensky said that elections without the participation of servicemen, Ukrainians from the occupied territories and those abroad would be unfair. In a joint interview with First Lady Olena Zelenska, the Ukrainian president indicated that the main condition for holding elections is the lifting of martial law in Ukraine.