Russia-Ukraine war: Zelenskiy says Ukraine’s troops have full control of Sudzha in Kursk – as it happened

• Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said his country’s forces are continuing to advance into Russian territory after their surprise offensive.

• The head Ukraine’s armed forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, has said Kyiv has set up a military commandant’s office in the occupied part of Russia’s Kursk region.

• He said his forces were still advancing and had taken up to 1.5 km (0.93 miles) in the last 24 hours.

• Alexei Smirnov, Kursk’s acting governor, said that the Glushkov district was being evacuated.

• Russia’s emergency ministry declared a federal level emergency in the Belgorod region.

• White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said the US will provide additional security packages for Ukraine in the coming days, told MSNBC on Thursday.

• British Challenger 2 tanks are thought to have been used in Ukraine’s surprise incursion into Russia, the UK’s PA Media reported.

• A Russian court today sentenced a Russian-American, Ksenia Karelina, to 12 years in jail on treason charges. The charge against Karelina was based on a donation of just over $50 she made to a charity supporting Ukraine.

Russian guided bomb attacks today killed at least two people and injured seven more in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, local authorities said, Reuters reported.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the head Ukraine’s armed forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, reported to him the “successful liberation of the city of Sudzha from Russian forces.”

The town had a prewar population of around 5,000 people, the Associated Press reported. It holds a measuring station for Russian natural gas that flows through Ukrainian pipelines.

“A Ukrainian military commandant’s office is being established there,” Zelenskiy said, adding that “several other settlements have also been liberated. In total, more than eighty.”

Ukrainian state TV aired footage on Wednesday of its troops pulling down a Russian flag from an official building in Sudzha.

Russia has claimed its forces have taken control of the village of Ivanivka in eastern Ukraine 16 km (10 miles) from the city of Pokrovsk, which is on an intersection of major roads that supply Ukrainian forces.

Ukraine’s surprise attack on Russia’s Kursk region has been seen by some analysts as an attempt to force Russia to divert forces from the Ukrainian front. But Russia’s defence ministry said its forces have clocked up a host of wins along the front, from Kharkhiv region to Luhansk and Donetsk, Reuters reports. The Guardian has not independently verified the battlefield claims.

Ukraine said there was no sign Russian military pressure was receding along the eastern front inside its borders on Thursday and reported the heaviest fighting in weeks near Pokrovsk.

The US will provide additional security packages for Ukraine in the coming days, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told MSNBC on Thursday.

Kirby’s comments came after the Ukrainian defence minister Rustem Umerov spoke with US counterpart Lloyd Austin about the battlefield situation and Ukraine’s defence needs, Reuters reported.

The head Ukraine’s armed forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, has said Kyiv has set up a military commandant’s office in the occupied part of Russia’s Kursk region. He said his forces were still advancing and had taken up to 1.5 km (0.93 miles) in the last 24 hours, Reuters reports.

Syrskyi told Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a video published by the Ukrainian leader that Kyiv’s forces have advanced 35 km into Russia’s Kursk region since launching an incursion last week.

Syrskyi said Ukrainian forces had taken 82 settlements under control during the incursion and an area of 1,150 square kilometres. He said he was appointing Major General Eduard Moskalyov to head up a military commandant’s office in the Kyiv-held part of western Russia.

“We are moving forward in Kursk region. A military commandant’s office has been created which must ensure order and also all the needs of the local population,” Syrskyi said in a written statement on his Telegram channel.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said Ukraine’s forces are continuing to advance into Russian territory after a surprise offensive and reiterated an appeal to western partners to allow long-range strikes on targets inside Russia. Authorities across the Kursk and Belgorod regions are continuing to evacuate residents as footage from inside Kursk shows people sheltering in a local boxing centre

1:13

British Challenger 2 tanks are thought to have been used in Ukraine’s surprise incursion into Russia, the UK’s PA Media is reporting.

A UK source told the news agency that battle tanks had been deployed by Ukrainian troops, as first reported by Sky News.

The UK’s Ministry of Defence refused to comment on “operational” matters but said there had been no change in policy since the green light was given for UK weapons to be used on Russian soil as part of Kyiv’s self-defence. The only exception are Britain’s powerful Storm Shadow missiles, which remain off limits beyond Ukraine’s borders. The 82nd Air Assault Brigade, which has been operating UK tanks since last year, has been involved in the ongoing incursion.

Ukraine’s surprise counter-offensive has sparked concerns about a wider escalation of tensions between Russia and the West. But the MoD has said Ukraine has a “clear right” to use weapons donated by the UK for its self-defence, and “that does not preclude operations inside Russia”.

Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he had a staff meeting covering “Frontline. Weapons. POW exchange. Legislative initiatives.”

The Security Service of Ukraine’s special forces captured 102 Russian servicemen in the Kursk region, Ukrinform reported.

“This is the most massive capture of the enemy that we managed to carry out at one time,” a source in the security service told the outlet.