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For the first time, Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, confirmed his forces have moved into Russian territory for battle.

In his nightly address, Zelensky said the surprise cross-border offensive

in Russia's Kirk's region and his country's fight.

It is hard to exaggerate the sense of surprise from Ukraine and its allies in the West

and embarrassment in Moscow, that this happened with Russian generals,

the Russian leader, apparently totally blindsided by a surprised Ukrainian attack on Russian soil,

on the motherland. On Monday morning, residents in parts of the Russian city of Belgarod, just to the south of Kursk,

like people in Kursk, have been told not to panic by the Russian government, but they must evacuate

because Ukrainian forces are on the advance in Russian territory itself.

This is one of the most audacious moves yet by President Zelensky and his generals. Why, as he's done it, what effect could it have on

this war, this long bloody war that is now two and a half years old? Welcome to the newsagents.

The newsagents. It's John. It's Lewis. And I hate to use the phrase so early on in the

podcast and such a cliche, but fog of war does seem appropriate right now, given what we know

and what we don't know about what has happened. But broadly speaking,

there has been this extraordinary Ukrainian incursion with heavy armour and it's advanced 30, 35 miles

into Russian territory, going towards Kursk, where there is a nuclear power plant run by the Russians,

apparently they've also seized a number of towns and villages along the way,

including a place which controls some of the supply of natural gas coming from Russia to the European Union.

This is unbelievable, given where we thought the conflict was until now.

Yeah, and there was an extraordinary bit of footage from a couple of days ago,

...