The situation in Kursk and its implications for eastern Ukraine
Kyiv had hoped the fighting in Kursk would result in Russia pulling its forces out of eastern Ukraine to quash the incursion. But on Tuesday, Russia’s defence ministry claimed to have captured the Donetsk region town of Niu-York. The ministry described it as “one of the largest settlements of the Toretsk agglomeration” and a “strategically important logistics hub.”
General Oleksandr Syrsky, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, said he was “doing everything necessary” to protect Toretsk. Soldiers, cited in a report by the Financial Times, said they had been forced to ration artillery shells for the first time since a US aid package because resources were being diverted to Kursk.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian parliament passed legislation banning religious organisations with links to Russia, an effective embargo on the Russian Orthodox Church. Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, said the law would promote his country’s “spiritual independence.”
- Andriy Yermak, his chief of staff, added that “The Russian Orthodox Church has nothing to do with faith — it is a tool of the special services.”
Patriarch Kirill, the head of the church, has been a cheerleader of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, which resulted in him being sanctioned by the UK Government.
