• Ukraine has continued its advance into Russia's Kursk region, its commander-in-chief said.

• He said Ukraine controlled 74 settlements as of Tuesday.

• He said Ukraine added control of more than 15 square miles on Tuesday.

Ukraine has continued its push into Russia's Kursk region with 74 settlements under its control, according to its commander-in-chief.

The update came from Oleksandr Syrskyi, the leader of Ukraine's military, and was shared by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a Telegram update.

Syrskyi said his forces controlled 74 settlements in Russia's Kursk region as of Tuesday.

Syrskyi also said that on Tuesday alone Ukrainian forces advanced another 1.3 miles and took control of more than 15 square miles of additional Russian territory, Ukrainian outlet The Kyiv Independent reported.

Ukraine's claim would amount to a continued advance in the region despite Russia's attempts to stop it.

The surprise attack began on August 6 and is now more than a week old.

Syrskyi said on Monday that Ukraine then had seized around 386 square miles of Russian territory — almost as much territory as Moscow's grinding advances elsewhere had taken from Ukraine in the whole of 2024 so far.

Independent analysis also pointed to Ukraine controlling a growing amount of Russian territory.

France's AFP agency reported that Ukraine controlled at least 308 square miles of Russian territory as of Monday, citing its analysis of data from the Institute for the Study of War, a think tank.

It wasn't certain exactly how the Ukrainian side was defining the 74 settlements it claimed to control.

The ISW said in its update on Tuesday that "it is unclear if Zelensky meant that Ukrainian forces are operating in 74 settlements or if he was referring to another type of geographic administrative unit."

It said it could be sure that Ukraine was operating in around 41 settlements, noting that there were some other "extremely small" ones it did not count.

Ukraine's attack appeared to take Russia off guard, prompting anger and recrimination from the Russian nationalist bloggers who provide much of the domestic commentary on the war in the absence of free media.

A Ukrainian deputy commander said the soldiers protecting Russia's borders "were mainly kids doing their mandatory service."

Ukrainian troops told the BBC that they were able to enter Kursk easily.

Ukraine has stayed largely tight-lipped about the operation, and officials have not stated a motivation for the advance into Russia.

But experts said that its motivations could include wanting to stretch Russia's resources in Ukraine, showing its strengths to Western backers, giving its weary troops a morale boost, and trying to secure bargaining chips that it can use with Russia.

The US, a major ally of Ukraine, has largely been quiet about Ukraine's operation. But it has also been unsympathetic to Russia's complaints about the attack.

John Kirby, the US's national security communications advisor, said on Monday that if Russian President Vladimir Putin is worried by the advance, "there's an easy solution: He can just get the hell out of Ukraine and call it a day."

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Ukrainian forces claim to have taken more ground in Russia's Kursk region

Ukraine claims its forces have advanced further into Russia's Kursk region, gaining more ground and capturing more Russian prisoners.

The forces also said they destroyed a Russian Su-34 strike jet, used to launch glide bombs at Ukrainian front-line positions and cities, when they attacked the region's military airfields.

Commander of the Ukrainian military, General Oleksandr Syrskyi, informed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that assault troops advanced one to two kilometres further into more areas of Kursk and took more than 100 Russian soldiers prisoner.

Zelenskyy said the prisoners would eventually be swapped for Ukrainian prisoners of war.

"Our advance in the Kursk region is going well today, we are reaching our strategic goal. We have significantly increased the 'exchange fund' for our country," Zelenskyy said in his nightly address.

The Ukrainian president also took the opportunity to call on Western allies for more weaponry.

"Our Ukrainian drones work exactly as they should. But there are things that can't be done with drones alone, unfortunately," he said. "We need other weapons — missile weapons. And we continue working with our partners on long-standing decisions for Ukraine because these are forward-looking decisions for our victory."

"It has to be done. The bolder our partners' decisions are, the less Putin will be able to do", he added.

Russian officials say roughly 121,000 people have been evacuated from Kursk since Ukraine began its surprise cross-border offensive on 6 August.

Russia's Belgorod border region, which is next to Kursk, declared a regional emergency on Wednesday during heavy Ukrainian shelling and a federal emergency was declared in Kursk on Saturday.

Changing the landscape of the battlefield

Ukraine's decision to push into Russia has sent shockwaves through the Kremlin and changed the landscape of the battlefield.

As the offensive enters its second week, Ukrainian forces are pushing out in several directions from the Russian town of Sudzha.

Within a week, Ukraine claimed to have captured almost as much Russian land in Kursk as Russian forces took in Ukraine in the last seven months, according to the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank.

Russian forces are still scrambling to respond, but the move has also exposed Ukraine's own weaknesses by extending the front line and committing new troops at a time when military leaders are short on manpower.

Kyiv deployed battalions drawn from multiple brigades, some of which were pulled from the hottest parts of the front line, where Russia's advance has continued unabated. So far, Moscow's overall strategic advantage is intact.

Russian President Vladimir Putin claims the incursion is an attempt by Kyiv to stop Moscow's offensive in the Donbas region and gain leverage in possible future peace talks.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak has also admitted that the incursion may strengthen Kyiv's hand in future negotiations with Russia.

Occupying part of Russian territory ahead of any cease-fire talks may give Ukraine some leverage.

But a Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesman said the cross-border operation was mainly aimed at protecting Ukrainian land from long-range strikes launched from Kursk.

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