Russia says retook three villages from Ukraine in Kursk

MOSCOW: Russia on Saturday said its troops had retaken three villages seized by Ukraine in the Kursk border region, where Kyiv’s forces have been losing ground recently.

The Russian defence ministry announced the recapture of Viktorovka, Nikolayevka and Staraya Sorochina.

Ukrainian soldiers launched an offensive in Kursk last summer, but Russia has wrested back control of more than two-thirds of the territory captured by Ukraine.

According to DeepState, an online military tracker linked to the Ukrainian army, the Russian move followed a “breach” in Ukrainian defence lines near the town of Sudzha which is under Kyiv’s control.

“One of our units left its positions. After that the enemy reinforced its troops and systematically launched assault operations… and here’s the result,” said DeepState, which is followed by more than 800,000 subscribers on the Telegram website.

An army source interviewed by Ukrainska Pravda newspaper said that the Ukrainian soldiers were trying to “stabilise the situation” but the Russian troops had “completely cut off the supply lines”.

Sergiy Sternenko, a prominent Ukrainian activist, wrote on Thursday: “The logistics situation in the Kursk region is rapidly deteriorating and is already critical.”

“Logistics routes to Sudzha are under full enemy fire control,” he said in a post on X, citing information from army units in the area.