Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed for the first time that Ukrainian troops are operating inside Russia’s Belgorod region. He said these operations are a justified response to Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

“We continue to carry out active operations in the border areas on enemy territory, and that is absolutely just — war must return to where it came from,” Zelenskyy said during a video address on Monday.

Zelenskyy said the goal is to protect Ukrainian towns in the Sumy and Kharkiv regions, which Russia frequently attacks. 

Last month, the president said “certain steps” are being taken by Ukraine’s military in Russia “just below the Kursk region,” hinting at a possible presence in the Belgorod region.

In recent days, Russian military bloggers had reported clashes between Russian and Ukrainian forces in the Belgorod region. In late March, Ukraine reported that its special forces destroyed four Russian helicopters in a strike in Belgorod region.

War experts have recently reported that Russia’s territorial advances in Ukraine have significantly slowed, reaching their lowest rate since late 2024. 

According to the Institute for the Study of War’s report published on Sunday, Russian forces seized 203 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory in March 2025, a sharp decline from the 627 square kilometers captured in November. The U.K. Ministry of Defense cited an even lower figure, stating that only 143 square kilometers were gained in March.

On Tuesday, Russia’s military confirmed that its forces had regained control of Guyevo, a village near the Ukrainian border and south of Sudzha, which had been liberated last month. The announcement came after the capture of Basivka, a village in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region, across from Kursk, on Sunday.