KYIV — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed for the first time on Monday that his country's troops have been active in Russia's Belgorod region, as they seek to protect Ukrainian towns near the border.

Ukrainian troops remain in parts of the neighboring Russian region of Kursk eight months after a cross-border incursion, though Russian forces have recaptured much of the lost territory.

In his nightly video address, Zelensky said Ukraine's top commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, had presented a report "on the front line, our presence in the Kursk region and our presence in the Belgorod region".

"We continue active operations in the enemy's border areas and this is absolutely justified. The war must return to where it came from," he said. "Our main objective remains the same: to protect our land and our communities in the Sumy and Kharkiv regions from Russian occupiers."

It is the first time in the more than three years since the conflict broke out that Zelensky has explicitly mentioned a Ukrainian presence in Belgorod, a region with a population of about 1.5 million people.

The Russian military acknowledged facing Ukrainian land attacks in the region last month, at a time when Ukrainian forces were under pressure in Kursk.

Zelensky repeated Kyiv's long-held contention that despite Russia's recapturing of areas in Kursk in recent weeks, the operation was successful in that it drew Russian forces away from the conflict's main front line in the eastern Donetsk region.

"Due to the entire Kursk operation, we have managed to reduce pressure on other front-line sectors, particularly in the Donetsk region," he said.

According to the DeepState military blog, which is considered close to Ukraine's army, troops have occupied a 13-square-kilometer area in the Russian region, near the border village of Demidovka.

Russian military bloggers had reported battles in Belgorod region between Russian and Ukrainian troops.

Meanwhile, the Ukraine air force said on Tuesday that Russia launched 46 drones and an Iskander-M ballistic missile during an overnight attack.

The air force shot down nine drones, with another 31 drones not reaching their targets, likely because of electronic warfare countermeasures, it said on Telegram. It did not say what happened to the remaining six drones or the missile.

In another development, the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih held vigils on Monday to begin three days of mourning for 11 adults and nine children allegedly killed by a Russian missile last week.

Friday evening's strike on Zelensky's home city sprayed shrapnel across a dense residential area, including a playground.

Russia said the strike had targeted a meeting of Ukrainian service members and foreign trainers and killed up to 85 of them, a claim rejected by Kyiv as disinformation.

"No strikes are carried out on social facilities and social infrastructure," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters during a briefing on Monday when asked about Friday's attack.

Agencies via Xinhua