Ukraine’s top commander said today Kyiv controlled around 1,000 square kilometers of Russia’s Kursk region, his first public comments since Ukraine launched its biggest cross-border attack in almost 2-1/2 years of full-scale war.

With Russia still struggling to repel the incursion seven days after it began, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy published a video clip of Oleksandr Syrskyi, the head of his armed forces, delivering a report on the fighting.

“We continue to conduct an offensive operation in the Kursk region. Currently, we control about 1,000 square kilometers of the territory of the Russian Federation,” he said.

Zelenskiy said the meeting of top-level officials had ordered the preparation of a “humanitarian plan” for the area.

Russia’s acting governor of Kursk region, Alexei Smirnov, said Ukraine controlled 28 settlements, and the incursion was about 12 km deep and 40 km wide.

In a statement, the Ukrainian leader said the defense ministry and diplomats have been ordered to present a list of “necessary actions” needed to secure permission from Kyiv’s Western allies to use long-range weapons for strikes on Russia.

Defence Minister Rustem Umerov urged Paris earlier today to lift the ban on Western weapons strikes on military targets in Russia during a call with French counterpart Sebastien Lecornu, the Ukrainian readout said.