Russia claims sweeping gains in Kursk region

MOSCOW: Russia has made sweeping gains in its Kursk region in the past 24 hours, taking back control of five villages previously held by Ukrainian troops, the Russian military said.

Moscow’s forces have also entered Sudzha, the largest town that fell under Kyiv’s control, and were conducting “assault operations” there, the state TASS news agency reported.

Kyiv launched its surprise assault on the Kursk region in August, but has steadily lost ground as Moscow deploys thousands of reinforcements including North Korean soldiers.

Ukraine now risks losing its grip on the border region entirely, ceding dozens of square kilometres of territory in the past six days, according to military bloggers.

Russian army units “liberated the settlements of Kazachya Loknya, 1st Knyazhy, 2nd Knyazhy, Zamostye and Mirny” in the Kursk region, all on the outskirts of Sudzha, the Russian defence ministry said Wednesday.

“The information provided by our military shows that our troops are successfully advancing in the Kursk Region, liberating areas that were under the control of the militants. The dynamic is good,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Video shared by Russian news outlets on Wednesday purported to show Russian troops waving a flag in the centre of Sudzha, which Kyiv captured shortly after its offensive began.

Kursk was one of Kyiv’s few bargaining chips in swapping land with Russia, which has seized and occupied around a fifth of Ukraine since it took Crimea in 2014 and launched its full-scale assault in February 2022.

In a village east of the fighting, a Ukrainian attack on an agricultural plant killed four people, acting Kursk region governor Alexander Khinshtein said Wednesday.