Russia said on Monday that its forces had retaken control of two villages in its western Kursk region from Ukraine, continuing what Moscow says is a significant counter-offensive there.
Russian forces have been battling Ukrainian troops in Kursk region since Aug 6, when Kyiv surprised Moscow with the biggest foreign attack on Russian soil since World War II.
Reuters could not independently verify the report by Russia's Defense Ministry that its troops had retaken the settlements of Uspenovka and Borki. They lie about 20 km apart on the border with Ukraine's Sumy region.
A senior Russian commander and pro-Kremlin war bloggers said last week that Russia had restored control over about 10 settlements in the region, an assertion Reuters was unable to confirm.
Ukraine says its forces control about 100 villages in Kursk over an area of more than 1,300 square km, which Russian sources dispute.
The governor of Kursk region, Alexei Smirnov, on Monday ordered the evacuation of settlements in two districts situated within 15 km of the Ukrainian border.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, speaking in his nightly video address on Monday, said he had discussed the situation in Kursk with top commander Oleksandr Syrskyi "and every day we act as planned".
Zelenskyy also said Syrskyi provided details of the slow advance of Russian forces in eastern Ukraine, particularly on the rail and logistic hub of Pokrovsk.
He said 100 battles had occurred in the last 24 hours on the eastern front, with the heaviest fighting gripping the Pokrovsk and Kurakhove sectors.
Capturing Pokrovsk would be a step towards Russia's objective of capturing the whole of the Donetsk region.
Zelenskyy said on Friday that Ukraine's Kursk incursion had slowed Russian forces in eastern Ukraine.
But Russian President Vladimir Putin says the Kursk assault has proved a distraction for Kyiv on the eastern frontline, weakening its defenses there.
Ukraine said on Monday it had asked the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to join humanitarian efforts in Kursk region.
Russia and Ukraine conducted two prisoner exchanges over the weekend involving hundreds of POWs. Many Russian soldiers had been captured while defending Kursk, the defense ministry said.
Russia's Commissioner for Children's Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, meanwhile, said on Telegram that she had met ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric Egger and discussed the reunification of Russian families whose children were elsewhere in Europe.
Lvova-Belova and Putin are sought on a warrant by the International Criminal Court in connection with the deportation of Ukrainian children in the war. Russia dismisses the warrants as meaningless and politically motivated.
© Thomson Reuters 2024.
11 Comments
TaiwanIsNotChina
It's a long way to Kyiv.
Banthu
It's only a 30 minute drive to the Kursk Nuclear Plant, which Zelensky has been trying to capture since August 6th.
$300 billion in NATO weapons and he can't advance 30 km to end the war.
JJE
This is the first actual reporting here on the RFAF counter offensive in Kursk.
Started a week ago, and on the western flank of the Kursk bulge. The villages mentioned here are on the eastern approach.
Several now legendary Russian units are hitting back hard, including the 810th Marines from Sevastopol, alongside their counterparts from the Far East, in a planned combined arms offensive involving columns of armor.
Even Zelensky in his daily 'address' admitted there was such an event occurring. Ask him. Although his claimed it was all part of "his plan". Even here this is a quotation almost to that effect although it is hard to tell precisely.
Kurakhove finally gets a mention: this is part of the line Russian command of Group of Forces Center/South will straighten out the line of contact. Draw a line from Ugledar/Vulehar in the south through that to Pokrovsk. The whole area to the east of the former is massive cauldron living on borrowed time and being encircled as you read this. Russians are collapsing the flanks on the salient and it looks like it will be an encirclement of Pokrovsk.
TaiwanIsNotChina
They don't even have a large area of contact with Pokrovsk, Mr. Bob.
JJE
Oh, I see.
Those mass evacuations of civilians really didn't occur and pretend it all isn't happening.
Everything is just swimmingly fine in state of Denmark in the Pokrovsk sector.
How convenient.
burgers and beers
"It's a long way to Kyiv."
It is good that Russia is not going to Kyiv then. The conflict need to end asap.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Putin has only two ways to end it: unconditional ceasefire and going for Kyiv. While the later would satisfy my cravings for zinc coffins, I'm glad to hear you are on board with the former. Some of your compatriots are not.
burgers and beers
Putin won't go for Kyiv, so unconditional ceasefire would be the way to go. NATO war hawks however don't seem to be ready to accept it yet.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Putin's never proposed unconditional ceasefire and you seem to think he is in the driver's seat.
burgers and beers
you seem to think he is in the driver's seat.
Since UAF defences are crumbling along the Donbas frontline that seems to be the case. Some may be in denial about it though.
JJE
There won't be an unconditional ceasefire - Moscow has Kyiv on the ropes, seeing stars and is readying the last series of knockout combination blows to put them on the canvas and turn out their lights indefinitely.
Putin proposed terms in February. That would have been a starting point for greater negotiations - which will include strict neutrality, no NATO, demilitarization, on top of other possible conditions.
That was then and this is now. And the future will see Moscow's demand increase, particularly with regards to territory.
Putin is in the driver's seat. He quite literally was behind the wheel when he visited Mariupol.
Moscow will not allow a problem to fester only to reemerge down the track. From its point of view, this has to be finished once and for all. If Kyiv/sponsors think they will get a cushy Minsk-style deal for them to stall, rearm and regroup; think again.