MOSCOW (Reuters) – 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 Two.
Reuters could not independently verify the report by Russia’s Defence Ministry that its troops had retaken the settlements of Uspenovka and Borki. They lie about 12 miles (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 taken back control of 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 sq km (500 sq miles), which Russian sources dispute.
Meanwhile, Russian forces are pressing forwards in eastern Ukraine towards Pokrovsk, a key rail and logistics hub for Kyiv’s forces. Seizing it would be a step towards Russia’s objective of capturing the whole of the Donetsk region.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy 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 defences there.
Russia and Ukraine conducted two prisoner exchanges over the weekend involving hundreds of POWs. Many of the Russian soldiers had been captured while defending Kursk, the defence ministry said.
(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Felix Light and Lucy Papachristou; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
